104 
ANIMAL LIFE ON THE 
CHAPTER XIL 
EARLY IMPRESSIONS OF THE BEAUTIES OF THE CREATURES. 
WE have heard it maintained that people brought up 
, , in rural districts near the sea, generally have a far 
keener appreciation and a deeper knowledge of Nature than 
those brought up in inland towns. There are decidedly 
facilities and contact to be met with in the one locality 
that are not afforded in the other, which we believe to have 
something to do with the matter. Reflecting on the point, 
I cannot remember a single companion of my boyhood who 
could not name every tree in the woods and every bird that 
nestled there, even by its chirp. If ''the boy is father to 
the man," my companions of those days who are yet alive 
must be Nature's children still. Dead and gone, and 
scattered over the face of the earth, as many of them are, 
one notable instance still remains in the old town. Over 
mountains and moors, through woods and through glens, 
Hugh Blair was the constant companion of those days. 
Poor Hugh, though robust and manly in person, had never 
very strong eyesight, through an early affliction of the 
disease of cataract, and for a number of j^ears back he 
has been almost in total darkness. But go to his quiet 
little home in the town of Rothesay, he will still be found 
surrounded by the birds he loves so well, delighting him 
in his lonely hours with the piping strains of their sweet 
little voices. How tenderly and lovingly he feels his way 
amongst them in their breeding season when administering 
to their wants ; and amongst his numerous flock no trait of 
character nor point of beauty in any one of them is missed 
in his descriptions of them. Hugh's joy in those early days 
