SOME HINTS ON NATURAL HISTORY SPECIMENS. 645 
generally watchful eye in likely-looking situations will more often 
result in their discovery, whereas with the sea-snakes the wily 
‘khalassi’? will again be able to help. In the case of lizards there is 
some fun to be had, for although one cannot go far anywhere without 
coming across them, that watchful eye will be upon you long before 
you have noticed him, and the finding is a very small portion of . the 
getting of him in ‘the bag.’ For agility there are very few terrestrial 
animals that can come near the general run of lizards—though 
perhaps he cannot give many points to the cockroach ;—and when you 
have got tired of hunting them yourself, the village urchin -will be 
glad to help for a small consideration. In that case, as with outside 
assistance of all kinds, there is one drawback, and one too that.it is as 
well to keep an eye upon. If your specimens are obtained by others 
collecting for you, you learn nothing of the haunts and habits of the 
different kinds, and in time you may find you come to rely upon 
them more and more—in fact you get lazy and shirk the work— 
with the result that there may eventually develop a tendency to 
become more of the specimen-hunter than the field-naturalist. I do 
not say naturalist because the man, who has spent his whole life, 
perhaps, within the walls of a museum, is so designated, even though 
he knows nothing whatever of the live beasts except from the writings 
of others, that he knows so much about as specimens. On the subject 
-of how and in what spirit to go about collecting, there is more to be 
learned from a perusal of “ The Naturalist on the Prowl” than any 
other book I ever came across : for while most entertaining reading, it 
instils into one the pleasures to be obtained and profit to one’s 
knowledge by observing while specimen-hunting. When one does 
come upon.a rare or strange beast that willbe a valuable addition to 
one’s collection, the first, and almost natural, inclination is to slay it 
on the spot without, what is styled, waste of time. As a matter of 
fact it 1s im many cases more likely to be time usefully and profitably 
employed to sit down first and observe it, remembering that, if you 
really want to be a naturalist, the power of -observation and the 
record of results therefrom are of. more importance than: any y 
other qualifications. The value of pencil.and paper -is more-often 
than not overlooked by the. beginner, who. should-accustom himself --to 
.the-making: of notes on all possible occasions. - Notes on littie: things, 
I 
