Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1901-08-02
New Methods Of Nature Study


/ 1t is refreshing to note that nature
study is becoming more and more a
common feature OF school and college
work, and also that the methods used
are somewhat different from those in
vogue some years ago. Time was
when the study of birds meant shoot
ing them, or collecting their eggs and
nests, and when the ardent student Of
quadrupeds, insects, reptiles, or any
other living thing, felt it necessary tc
prove his love for his subject by knock.
ing it 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 dissecting them dead.
At least half of the popular books
on nature study which have appeared
in the last few years have evidently
been the work of the out-of-door Ma.
turalists. The lover of nature takes
his camera, his opera-glass, his text
book and his note book, and HES him
to the woods or fields, where he quiet
ly sits down on the ground or props
himself against tree, and keeps very
still. 1t is not his purpose to inter
rupt, but to watch, the housekeeping
Of his friends in fur or feathers. He
knows that the report of a gun or the
smell OF blood will efiectually put a
stop to the kind of studying he de-
sires to do. 1t is not practicable to
kill person and make friends with
him at one and the same time, and
the rule holds just as good if the per-
son is squirrel or robin.
The nature-lover, therefore, sits for
hours i'll his chosen place, tramps for
miles over wood-paths or through un.
trodden wilderness, not for the sake of
bringing home a well-filled bag of
game, but in order to store his head
with interesting information. He
wants 10 find out, perhaps, what the
habits OF certain bird are. and how
its song at certain seasons OF the year
differs from the mere twitter heard at
other seasons; what it lives on, and
how far north it ranges. Can he dis
cover all these things by lying in wait
for the bird and shooting it, or taking
it home to live the rest of its short
life in a cage? Nothing of the kind !;
this is case in which he, not the
bird, must pay for his knowledge. So,
like an honest man, he pays, and in
return learns more not only about
about that bird, but about various
other creatures met in his travels,
than the mere sportsman would know
If he hunted hundred years.
Old wootsmen, it is true, often know
a great deal of the habits of wild
things, not only from the hunters but
the naturalists point of view; but it
is we'll known that they seldom hunt
for mere sport. and never kill more
than they need for actual consumption
or for sale. One does not find an Adj
rondack guide running amuck in the
woods, blazing away at everything he
sees. Powder and shot are too pre-
cious, for one thing. Consequently
the people in fur and feathers, not de.
sired by him for food or other pur-
peses, soon learn to know him, and
he understands them. Sometimes he
is not much of sportsman, in the Or
binary sense OF the term. And the
men who attend to the preserving OF
game and the care of forests know
quite as much of woodcraft as those
who live by shooting the wild crea.
lures.