CHAPTER III 



WHAT TO DO IN THE COUNTRY 



Although, as every intelligent boy knows, there 

 is so mucli to see and hear in the country, there 

 are many people who complain that life outside of 

 a big city is dull and uninteresting. To those, of 

 course, who know and love Nature and her wonder- 

 ful children, no time spent along the countryside is 

 dull. Every field and hedgerow, every wood and 

 coppice, every stream and pond, every park and 

 garden, every piece of waste ground, every valley 

 and hillside, has its interesting animal and vege- 

 table inhabitants. 



The fact is, many people do not, or will not, 

 use their ears and eyes, and as I have so often 

 written, unless one cultivates the seeing eye and 

 the receptive ear, some other vocation than that 

 of studying Nature had better be chosen. 



People often ask me how it is possible for me to 

 be able to tell a bird by its note; that is, by a mere 

 little sound, not by means of a loud or long-sus- 

 tained song. Very often, too, my companions 



cannot manage to catch the voice of a bird I 



27 



