PLAN OF STUDY. 



XV 



cloudy weather, when the temperature of the air is not sufficiently 

 high, — a fact which has given origin to the error, that the ostrich 

 (Struthio camelus) lays her eggs in the sand and abandons them 

 to chance. 



Such is a brief example of the mode of study which I am dis- 

 posed, from experience, to recommend to those who have begun, 

 or are inclined to begin, the study of birds or any other branch 

 of Natural History. Books are useful and necessary, beyond all 

 question, but no progress can ever be made by trusting to 

 book study. Nothing can more strikingly illustrate the difference 

 between the closet fancies of mere book naturalists, and the actual 

 facts which any body, who will be at the trouble of observing, 

 may verify, than the following passage from the highly lauded 

 article, " Ornithology," in Rees's Cyclopaedia. " Birds of the 

 same species," says the author, " collect the same materials, ar- 

 range them in the same manner, and make choice of similar 

 situations for fixing the places of their temporary abodes. Wher- 

 ever they dispose themselves, they always take care to be accom- 

 modated with a shelter ; and if a natural one does not offer itself, 

 they very ingeniously make a covering of a double row of leaves, 

 down the slope of which the rain trickles, without entering into 

 the little opening of the nest that lies concealed below." 



Now I would remark that the author, in asserting that " birds" 

 (meaning birds in general) " take care to be accommodated with 

 a shelter," entirely forgets the numerous families which lay their 

 eggs on the bare ground, and often even leave them exposed the 

 greater part of the day on the sands of the desert, the sea beach, 

 or isolated rocks ; but we further learn that "they" (meaning all 

 birds) " make a covering of a double row of leaves ;" yet, so far 

 from all birds doing this, I am not acquainted with an individual 

 species that does so. It is impossible that the author could ever 

 have seen any nest in the woods and fields, which would give the 

 least colour to such fancies. The objects themselves, therefore, 

 must be examined, the actions of living animals observed, and the 

 causes of these actions traced ; otherwise the details learned from 

 books will only lumber the memory, like words conned from the 

 vocabulary of a foreign language, the grammar and literature of 

 which are unknown. One fact learned from personal observation, 

 is to the student worth a thousand mere book facts; and one 

 research like that just exemplified, based upon personal observa- 



