24 
A NATURALIST ON THE PROWL . 
under stones, and green crickets shrilly squeaking in the 
bushes. 
Is the key to all this, “ Cherchez la femme ” ? I do not 
believe it. Why should we devise explanations of matters 
that need none ? When an animal is well and happy, there 
is an overflow of nervous energy, a surplus beyond what it 
requires. The Wagtails and Redstarts let it off by shaking 
their tails, and the crickets and the frogs and a hundred 
others let it off in noise, and 
“ the sailor lad 
Sings in his boat in the bay ” 
and 
“ the fisherman’s boy 
Shouts with his sister at play.” 
Besides, do you think that man is the only animal which 
feels the monotony of doing nothing? All living things 
feel it, till you get so low down in the scale of life that they 
can scarcely be said to feel anything at all. When they are 
not sleeping or eating, they must be doing something pour 
passer le temps. To some, indeed, nature has been kind 
and given them an interesting occupation for their leisure 
hours. To the dog, for instance, she has given fleas, so he 
can lie on the carpet scratching his ribs, biting his feet and 
worrying his person passing and the time never hangs 
