12 THE WOMBAT. 



NATURAL HISTORY, AND HOW TO 

 READ IT. 



By James Lidgett, F.E.S. 



Read before a Public Meeting in the A.N. A. Hall, 

 Bacchus Marsh, 12/8/97. 



It has been said that popular treatises on natural history 

 generally involve inaccuracy, although in reality a popular 

 treatise may be as rigidly correct in all statements of fact as 

 a compilation too technical to be of any interest to you this 

 evening. There are three chief departments in the study of 

 natural history: — (1) original research; (2) the thorough 

 study of a branch of natural science in all its details, with 

 such observations, experiments, and calculations as may be 

 necessary to give a complete mastery of it ; and (3) the study 

 of scientific facts without a mastery of the methods or pro- 

 cesses by which they have been ascertained — a form of study 

 which may be compared to wandering on pleasant bypaths 

 beside the regular roadway. The two first-mentioned depart- 

 ments are no doubt the most important, but the latter is, to 

 my way of thinking, the best method of preparing ourselves 

 for the study of the former ; personally, this is my method of 

 making observations and calculations, though the subject, 

 like any other, is strictly relative, and what suits one does 

 not suit another. 



I do not intend dealing with any single method or single 

 subject ; all we can hope to do this evening is to select a group 

 of facts every here and there, and to hang from them a few 

 pictures which will, I hope, give you a view of the first 

 principles which underlie the problems of natural history. 



The study of natural history can only be entered upon by 

 degrees, and we can only become successful by adopting a 

 slow and gradual process, following the maxim of " first the 

 blade, then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear." To 

 persons engaged in country occupations, whether for pleasure 

 or for profit, a systematic study of the phases of animal and 

 plant life is not only of great interest, but also of much 

 importance. 



My paper this evening treats of the subject under three 

 headings, viz : — 1st. Phenological Observations — our need of 

 them ; 2nd. The Study of Natural History Applied to Rural 

 Pursuits ; 3rd. Natural History as a Science. 



