X 



PLAN OF STUDY. 



a story circulated among village gossips, is more apt to gain in 

 falsehood than in truth, as it passes from one to another ; but, 

 in field study, we go at once to the fountain-head, and obtain 

 our facts pure and unalloyed by the theories and opinions of 

 previous observers. By pursuing such a method, three of the 

 chief prejudices which Lord Bacon has pointed out as sources of 

 human error are avoided, and the only danger is from what he 

 quaintly denominates prejudices of the den, (Idola specus^*) mean- 

 ing thereby the imperfections of an individual's intellect, whether 

 natural to him or produced by education. Here it is that the 

 utility of books becomes obvious. You witness, in a field excur- 

 sion, a certain incident or peculiarity of action in some animal, 

 which strikes you as worthy of being chronicled in your note 

 book. You pay a visit, for example, to the nest of a dabchick 

 or grebe, (Podiceps,) which you had discovered some days before 

 among reeds at the edge of a pond, and are surprised to find that 

 the eggs have disappeared; but much more so, on taking up. 

 some of the rude materials of the nest, to see the eggs snugly 

 concealed beneath. The question immediately arises — did the 

 mother bird thus cover the eggs herself, and if so, for what pur- 

 pose was it done ? If you be not too impatient (a state of mind 

 exceedingly adverse to accuracy and originality) you will endea- 

 vour to ascertain whether the covering of the eggs was peculiar 

 to this individual, or common to the species, by repeated obser- 

 vation as frequently as opportunity offers ; or, if patience fail you 

 for this, such books as you have access to may be consulted. Look 

 into Linnaeus, and all you find is, that this bird "builds a floating 

 nest of grass and reeds ;" f Latham says " the nest is made of water 

 plants among the reeds, and close to the surface of the water — 

 floating independent.":}: Willughby, Ray, and Brisson, say not 

 a word about the nest. Fleming says the " nest is in marshes of 

 aquatic plants, and made so as to float." § "They breed," says 

 Goldsmith, "among reeds and flags, in a floating nest, kept 

 steady by the weeds and margin." || They "construct their nest," 

 says Griffith, evidently copying Temminck, "with rushes, &c, 



* See Bacon's Novum Organum, i. 41, &c. ; and De Augmentis Seien- 

 tiarum, iv. 



f Turton's Linn. i. 356. % General History of Birds, x. 22—24. 



§ Brit. Animals, page 131. || Animated Nature, ii. 286. 



