THE FIELD-NATURALIST'S WORK 



The average field-naturalist tends to become a collector of specimens rather 

 tlian an investigator of the ways of animal life. His ambition is to collect the 

 specimens as soon as he can. and as many as he can: and fearing lest each 

 specimen shall escape him and be lost, he neglects the opporttmit}' to observe 

 it in life and to learn something about its habits and its ways. Often he 

 takes this attitude from the institution for which he is working. It desires a 

 great series of specimens which he feels he must secure. Yet the collecting of 

 a large series of specimens, and the bringing them home in satisfactory^ shape, 

 should be only a small portion of the field-naturalist's work. Skins and skulls 

 are useful, but skins and skulls and measurements and proportions tell us only 

 a little about the living animal. Most of us wish to learn something about its 

 ways of life. 



George Bird Griknell. 



For(r<.y.-ord. Roosevelt Wild Life Bidletin, 



Vol. I. Xo. I. p. 9; 1921. 



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