Junction City bulletin. [volume] (Junction City, Or.) 189?-1901, 1901-07-18
New rlsthoas OF Nature s,uay.

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New FIsthods OF Nature Study.
1t is refreshing to nete that nature
study is heeoming more and more a
common feature OF school aad college
work, and also that the methods used
are somewhat different from those in
vogue some years ago. Time was when
che study Of birds meant shooting them
or collecting their eggs and nests, and
when the ardent student Of qua1rupeds,
insects, reptiles, or any other living
thing, ielt it necessary to prove his love
for his subject by knocking 1t in the
head, and to measure his knowledge by
the size OF his collection. Thanks TO
the camera and common sense, things
are different now. The naturalist has
learned that he can find out more about
birds and animals by making friends
with them when alive than by dissect.
ing them dead.
AT least hall OF the popular books on
nature study which have appeared in
the last few years have evidently been
the work oi the outdoor naturalist. The
loser OF nature takes his camera, his
opera.glass, his textbook and his note.
book, aud hies him to the woods or
fields, whore hs quietly sits down on
the ground or props himself against a
tree, aud keeps very still. II is not his
purpose to interrupt, but to watch the
housekeeping OF his friends in fur and
feathers lie kaoEs that ths report oi
a gun or the smell u blood will eject
nally put stop to the kind Of studying
he desires to do, II is not practicable
to kill person and make friends with
him at one end the saute time. and the
rale holds just as good ii the person is
squirrel or robin.
The nature lover, therefore, sits for
hours in his chosen place. tramps for
miles over wood-paths or through un.
trodden wilderness, not for the sake of
bringing LONE well.iilled bag Of game,
but in order to store his head with in.
teresting information lie wants to
and out, perlla2s, what the habits Of a
certain bird are. and how its s-ng at
certain seasons Of the year differs from
the mere twitier beard at other seasons !;
what it lives on, and how far north it
ranges. Can lie discover alI these
things by lying in wait for the bird aud
shooting it, or taking it home to live the
rest Of its short life in cage? Nothing
OF the kind this is case in which he,
not the bird, must pay for his knowl-
edge. So, Ike an honest man. he pays,
and in return learns more not only about
that bird, but abont various other crea-
tures met in his travels, than the mere
SPORTSMAN would know il he hunted a
hundred years.
Old woodsmen, il is true, often know
great deal Of the habits Of wild things,
not only from the hunters, but the nat.
uralists, point OF view; but it ie well
known that they selom hunt for mere
sport, aud never kill more than they
need forActual consumption or for sale.
One does not find an Adirondack guide
running amuck in the woods, blazing
away at everything he secs. Powder
and SHOT are too precious, Tor one thing.
Consequently the people in fur and
feathers, not desired by hira for food or
other purposes, soon learn 20 know him,
aad he understands them. Sometimes
he 10 not much Of a Sportsman in the
ordinary sense Of the term. And the
men who attend to the preserving oi
game and the care Of forests know quite
as much ol woodcraft as th )se who live
by shooting the Wild creatures.