THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 746.— August, 1903. 



FIELD NOTES (BEING A NATURALIST'S DIARY OF 

 OBSERVATION AND REFLECTION). 



By Edmund Selous. 



1899. 



September 28th. — A Green Woodpecker this morning flew 

 down on to one of the flower-beds in my garden, and was there 

 some time. The flowers, however, prevented me from seeing, 

 and when I tried to stalk it, it saw me first and flew off. My 

 garden and meadow is part of this Woodpecker's preserve, and 

 as the open sandy space, which I have called the amphitheatre, 

 is just opposite my house, across the river, and as I have seen 

 the bird that there haunts fly to some trees only a little beyond 

 my boundary, I fancy that the two are identical, making one in- 

 dividual who hunts round, daily, in a moderately wide circle. 

 Most animals, I suppose, have their regular hunting-grounds. 

 This seems to be the case with Tigers in India, however exten- 

 sive and varied and liable to sudden and complete change their 

 field of operations may be. It is the same, no doubt, with Lions, 

 who would, probably, not wander beyond a certain district they 

 were accustomed to if the game in it did not become scarce. Thus 

 we have the great instinct of conservatism which in beasts shows 

 itself much in this way. The right path for them is the one in" 

 which they have been accustomed to roam. To change it requires 

 an effort which, till some force arises sufficiently powerful to 

 compel them to make, they will not make — =and so with men. 

 Change is, in fact, a great discomfort ; even when it makes no 

 Zool. 4th aer. vol. VII., August, 1903. z 



