viii NATURE STALKING FOR BOYS 



direct appeal to Boy Scouts, and as there is so much 

 in Nature — both in the animal and vegetable worlds — 

 which a scout should be acquainted with to enable 

 him to successfully carry out the important work he 

 has taken up, it is believed that this book will prove 

 of service to the thousands of boys who are de- 

 sirous of proving of some service to their country and 

 of training themselves in good citizenship. It would 

 be beyond the scope of this book to deal with the work 

 of a scout other than so far as he is brought into con- 

 tact with animals and plants, and it has been thought 

 advisable to strike a happy medium, as it were, and to 

 produce a book of interest and service to the Boy Scout, 

 the young lover of Nature, and even to adults, for we 

 have been much struck with the number of grown-up 

 persons who read these books and who express the 

 wish that they were boys again ! 



As regards my own part of this companion volume 

 to The Boy's Own Nature Book and Every Boy's Book 

 of British Natural History, I have endeavoured to 

 break fresh ground and to present the wonderful 

 story of Nature by means of a new and attractive 

 series of essays and notes which I hope will meet with 

 the same success as my previous efforts. 



I am specially honoured on this occasion with an 

 introduction by Lieutenant-General Sir R. S. S. Baden- 

 Powell, K.C.V.O., the popular hero of Mafeking during 

 the Boer war and the ideal soldier and scout beloved 

 by every boy who lives under the protection of the 

 Union Jack. 



The splendid spirit of patriotism which the General 

 has shown in organising his Boy Scouts so quickly and 

 efficiently deserves every recognition, and it is because 



