The 
South Australian Naturalist. 
Vol. XV. ADELAIDE, SEPTEMBER 20th, 1934. No. 4. 
THE STUDY AND LOVE OF NATURE. 
AN APPEAL TO YOUTH. 
By C. Fenner, D.Sc. 
Those who are interested in the study and the love of 
Nature are being at the present time somewhat exercised in their 
minds by an apparent falling off in the interest usually taken in 
such matters by a goodly proportion of young men and women. 
There are abundant signs of this failing interest. In the follow¬ 
ing notes an effort is made to set down some of the charms and 
delights that attend upon a love of natural history, and an 
appeal is made to young South Australian to turn then minds, 
now and then, towards the quiet contemplation of the world of 
cloud, and wave, and leaf. 
While I am writing to you of these things, it is necessary 
for me to remember, and I want each reader also to realise it, 
that the potential Field Naturalists of South Australia h\e under p 
many widely different conditions, with a great variety of natural 
surroundings. Some arc fortunate enough to be li\ing in the 
bush itself, others live by the seaside; many dwell in clearings 
in the graceful scrub of the Murray .Malice, oi the fat West 
Coast, and others on distant plains among the mulga and the 
salt-bush; still others live in settlements along the banks of the 
mighty Murray River, and many have their homes in the streets 
and suburbs of Adelaide. But each one, wherever his home may¬ 
be, has the opportunity of studying natural history, and of 
taking some interest in the world around him. 
You may not talk much, or at all, about the things that 
you love the best. Every youth and maiden, for instance, grows 
iona of the hills and valleys of his or her native place. They 
find a quiet pleasure in the trees and flowers, in the birds and 
other animals around them, and in the roads and fields and path¬ 
ways over which they wander on those rare days when they aie 
free, rambling or hunting or hiking, to go just where they like. 
