TERRESTRIAL 209 



ature of winter, a fact that raises the whole difficult problem of 

 regeneration ; we know that the re-grown anterior part sometimes 

 turns out to be a second tail instead of a new head, which forces 

 us to face the fact that there are limits to the perfectness of 

 adaptations. We cannot avoid inquiring, too, how far the 

 mole's destruction of earthworms, which are for the most part 

 valuable agriculturally, is compensated for by its destruction 

 of injurious insects. And so from the unearthed store of 

 worms in the mole's burrow we pass to problems of nerve physi- 

 ology, comparative psychology, conditions of development, rural 

 economy, and what not, inquiries obviously far beyond the range 

 of school " Nature Study," though inevitably suggested by it. 



Woodland. -- Just as there are characteristic plants which 

 one expects in the woods such as the pale yellow cow-wheat 

 (Melampyrum) and enchanter's night-shade (Circcea) and the 

 blue hyacinth (S cilia nutans) so there are characteristic animals 

 though it is not so easy to get to know them, for wood animals 

 are peculiarly shy and evasive. In some woods during the warm 

 part of the year it is difficult (for the thin-skinned at least) to do 

 any Nature Study at all, because of the hosts of midges which 

 make standing still a torture. The thin-skinned observer must 

 perforce resort to a veil, for there is never much to be seen on a 

 scamper. 



It is advisable that the leader of a class excursion should 

 have made the excursion or a similar one many times before, 

 and that he should know what he is going to look for, and where. 

 As in the case of other haunts, another piece of general advice 

 may be given, namely, to pay the haunt a visit at different times 

 of day and at different times of year, and not to try too much 

 at once. We shall restrict our hints to noting a few things or 

 sets of things that should be looked for and studied. 



Squirrels. The distinctive mammal of the woods, is Sciurus 

 vulgaris " the lytil squerell full of besynesse," which ranges 

 from Britain to Japan. The pupils probably know its hairs in 

 the " camel's hair " brushes used in painting. To watch the 

 animal is in itself a delight. " It is amusing," MacGillivray 

 observed, " to watch it in its arboreal excursions, when you see 



VOL. II. 14 



