West Virginia argus. [volume] (Kingwood, W. Va.) 1877-1946, 1901-08-08
NEW METHODS OF NATURE STUDY.


1t is refreshing to note that nature
study is becoming more and more
common feature of school and
college work, and also that the
methods used are somewhat differ
ent from those in vogue some years
ago. Time was when the study of
birds meant shooting them, or COL
lecting their eggs and nests, and
when the ardent student of quadru-
peds, insects, reptiles, or any other
living thing, felt it necessary to
prove his love for his subject by
knocking 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 appear
ed in the last few years have
evidently been the work of the out
ot-door naturalist. 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 quietly sits down
on the ground or props himself
against a tree, and keeps very still.
1t IS not his purpose to interrupt,
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 effectually
put a stop to the kind of studying
he desires to do. 1t is not practic-
oble to kill person and make
friends with him at one and the
same time, and the rule holds lust
as good if the person is a squirrel
or a robin.
The nature-lover, therefore, sits
for hours in his chosen place,
tramps for miles over wood paths or
through untrodden wilderness, not
for the sake of bringing home well
filled bag of game, but in order to
store his head with interesting in
formation. He wants to find out
perhaps, what the habits of a
certain bird are, and how its song
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
discover 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 a 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 that bird, but
about various other creatures met
in his travels, than the mere sports
man would know if he hunted a
hundred years.
Old woodsmen, it is true, often
know great deal of the habits of
wild things, not only from the
hunters but the naturalisPs point of
view; but it is well 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 Adirondack
| guide running amuck in the woods.
blazing away at everything he sees.
Powder and shot are too precious,
for one thing. Consequently the
| people in fur and feathers, not de
sired by him for food or other
| purposes, soon learn TO know him
and he understands them Some.
times he is not much Of sports.
man in the ordinary 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 creatures.