LEAF AND TENDRIL 



kindles the imagination and touches the sentiments 

 more than does this minute way of the speciaUst. 

 The nature that Scott gives us is Hke the air and 

 the water that all may absorb, while what the 

 specialist gives us is more like some particular ele- 

 ment or substance that only the few can appropriate. 

 But Scott had his specialties, too, the specialties 

 of the sportsman ; he was the first to see the hare's 

 eyes as she sat in her form, and he knew the ways 

 of grouse and pheasants and trout. The ideal ob- 

 server turns the enthusiasm of the sportsman into 

 the channels of natural history, and brings home 

 a finer game than ever fell to shot or bullet. He too 

 has an eye for the fox and the rabbit and the migrat- 

 ing water-fowl, but he sees them with loving and 

 not with murderous eyes. 



Ill 



So far as seeing things is an art, it is the art of 

 keeping your eyes and ears open. The art of nature 

 is all in the direction of concealment. The birds, 

 the animals, all the wild creatures, for the most 

 part try to elude your observation. The art of the 

 bird is to hide her nest; the art of the game you are 

 in quest of is to make itself invisible. The flower 

 seeks to attract the bee and the moth by its color 

 and perfume, because they are of service to it; but 

 I presume it would hide from the excursionists and 

 the picnickers if it could, because they extirpate it. 

 10 



