" JIZZ " 143 



The taxidermist, too, is accused, often with reason, of 

 presenting an effigy devoid of character. But there are 

 pictures and pictures, photographs and photographs, 

 stuffed birds and stuffed birds; it is not the drawing, the 

 negative, or the set-up skin which shows the bird, but the 

 ability of the artist, whether draughtsman, photographer, 

 or taxidermist, to catch the jizz. I have in mind some 

 slight pencil sketches by Mr. Archibald Thorburn, one of 

 a tawny owl, one of a pintail; there is little detail, but a 

 world of jizz. In my room is a print from a photograph 

 taken by Mr. O. J. Wilkinson; it shows a bird perched on 

 a stump, nothing more ; yet in every curve and detail we 

 see at once a living spotted flycatcher. In the " Sports- 

 man's British Bird Book " are a number of illustrations 

 photographed from specimens mounted in Rowland 

 Ward's studios; I have not seen the originals, but who- 

 ever mounted some of these birds was an artist; he knew 

 how to record jizz. 



Jizz, of course, is not confined to birds. How do we 

 recognise the bank vole, seen for a second in the lane, the 

 long lean rat which appears and vanishes like a grey 

 streak, the pipistrelle flitting in the dusk round the barn ? 

 How do we know the daisy in the field, the sturdy oak ? 

 Is it by colour, size, length of tail, or shape of wing, by 

 petal, form of leaf, or fruit ? No ; the small mammal and 

 the plant alike have jizz. We do not stop to look for 

 detail, to ask ourselves what we saw; we know. Jizz 

 may deceive us; that is our fault, for each and every thing 

 has its distinctive jizz; if inexperienced we may fail to 

 discern it. 



To learn the jizz should be the object of every field 

 naturalist ; it can only be learnt by study of wild creatures 

 in their natural surroundings. The seagull in the aviary, 

 the lark in the cage, the rabbit in the hutch have lost more 

 than half their jizz; the specimen in ninety-nine out of a 



20 



