THE WORKING-MAN NATURALIST 137 



became an ardent bird protector in his poetical days, and 

 a keen botanist; he was a character, but a good sort. 



The working-man naturalist has, perhaps, evolved 

 rather than vanished; he has, to a great extent, ceased 

 to collect for mere collecting's sake. There are to-day 

 many small local natural history societies in the Lanca- 

 shire, Yorkshire, and Cheshire manufacturing towns, and 

 some, though not so many as formerly, hold their meetings 

 and have their " museums " in public-houses. I have 

 drunk bad beer and eaten potatoes roasted in their 

 " jackets " in order to attend these meetings, and, 

 frankly, have enjoyed myself, though the dialect, to a 

 southerner, would have been a foreign language. Many 

 societies have a much better tone and more scientific 

 ideals ; they are led by men who love nature for nature's 

 sake, and care about their collections as means of increas- 

 ing knowledge. The pity is that the records of the older 

 clubs were badly kept or not kept at all; they seldom 

 had a recorder; each member was jealous of the others, 

 and kept his knowledge to himself. 



When we were parting from one old collector, he asked : 



"Do you collect birds?" "No." "Do you stuff 

 them ?" " No." 



We explained that we wanted to get records, to write 

 about them. He looked at us with pity. " Come any 

 Sunday; you'll meet lots of practical men here." 



Writers about birds and recorders are evidently not 

 practical. Perhaps they are not ! 



