FISHINO AS A. SPORT. 87 



lie has his eyes and ears open for the sights and sounds 

 of nature, as she presents herself to him in her various 

 moods and phases. I do not, of course, mean that all 

 anglers are keen lovers of nature or observant of natural 

 phenomena ; but the great majority certainly are so, and 

 become more and more interested every year in all they 

 see and hear about their paths. He spake truly in the 

 " Old Play :"— 



" Trust me, there is much 'vantage in it, sir ; 

 You do forget the noisy pother of mankind, 

 And win communion with sweet Nature's self, 

 In plying our dear craft." 



And so not unfrequently, nay, it very often happens that 

 the angler is led to investigate the habits of the birds, 

 beasts, and insects which present themselves to him in 

 his vocation, and the marvels of the lives of the innu- 

 merable creatures which tenant the earth, air, and water ; 

 and thus he becomes an enthusiastic, though, of course, 

 not always a scientific naturalist; while the trees of the 

 forest and the flowers of the field are another endless 

 source of interest and study. 



It is in this respect that fishing as a sport has a great 

 advantage over both hunting and shooting. These in 

 their very nature so engross the sportsman's attention, 

 that he cannot suffer his mind to be diverted from the 

 immediate pursuit of the sport in hand. Of course, he 

 has what may be called leisure moments in both, but he 

 cannot at any moment suspend, as it were, his operations, 

 whatever be his love of nature and natural history. It is 

 otherwise with the angler : he can lay aside his rod for 

 any interval he likes, whenever his attention is called to 

 some interesting object or phenomenon, and can even 



