78 Siiviincr Studies of Birds and Books chap. 



in liis Birds of Oxfordshire a note of mine about the 

 bird of the Botanic Garden. I was to find out the 

 localities in which we were likely to come upon new 

 or interesting birds, and my friend was to bring his 

 accurate scholarship to bear upon them when found. 

 I use this word sclwlarship intentionally, for there 

 is no other that so exactly expresses that combina- 

 tion of knowledge and observation, — of observation 

 strengthened and controlled by knowledge, and of 

 knowledge based on observation and only aided by 

 books, — which is characteristic of every true natu- 

 ralist, as of every true scholar. There are many 

 inaccurate naturalists, as there are many inaccurate 

 scholars ; and as I know myself to be by nature 

 inexact, I am most unwilling to accept the evidence 

 of my own senses without some confirmation from 

 those of a better scholar. 



On the second day after we reached Switzerland 

 we spent two or three hours at Interlaken, where we 

 found much to interest us. At the end of the long 

 street which leads towards the Lake of Brienz we 

 passed out into a spongy -looking and reedy tract, 

 lying between the river Aar and some cultivated 

 ground, — ^just in the same position as the haunt of 

 the Marsh Warbler at Meiringen. Here I proposed 

 that we should follow a footpath which ran along 

 the river-side, and seemed likely to lead us to some 

 bits of scrub and wild ground which we could see 



