Sept. 28-—Unable to go out to-day, 1 comforted myself by, reading an article by a self-styled "nature-lover and observer of all wild life" in a widely-read London weekly: two outstanding points struck me as worth noting for future reference First, his definition of "freezing," or remaining perfectly stil! while observing wild life:—"you must learn to stop sud denly and to stand utterly immovable, your hand halfway to your face (to knock that ly away) or you may be in the middle of your stride. You must slop and remain there exactly as you stopped." I cannot possibly elaborate this theme: T only pleturo to myself, for example, two members of the 'Stock Exchange (also bird observers) walking round Jessfield Park together and wonder what they would look ike, "After describing several teresting experiences, this writer goes fon t remark, concerning birds and "human scent':—"Gencrally speaking the wild folk pay but lit lo attention to this in the open." Now it this is the case, some of my most treasured theories have gone west: my convie~ tion is that our resident birds China share the distrust which dogs, buffaloes and' all native creatures have for foreigners and that they distinguish us by scent; and that his is the. reason why Pheasants will go clucking round farmers among. their crops (heard but unseen) and will move off as soon us I or any other foreigner appears; and that the same applies to many other birds such Magpies and Rooks which will follow farmer along the furrow, and fly way screaming at my approach, even before they see me. But that business of the "freezing" is really too much for me: this London observer quotes as his motto the famous words of Traake Walton's Piscator, "Study to be quiet: does he suggest that every time a bird passed when Piscator felling a fish story he stood the Uke a scarecrow for five minutes on and'
Sept. 30-—~The morning was crisp, bright and sunny, as I sat by a small Jagoon removing' some stones from my shoes. In spite of the nearness of an ash road, the dust from which had powdered the trees and shrubs with "dirty grey, the lagoon looked fresh and green: a carpet of, fern~ weed was dotted and patterned with the darker leaves of water-chestnut, whose small white bowers, soaked wath dew, stood out like gleaming flakes of snow. Overhead 'a great Harrier Buzzard circled round on motionless wings, eyes and bill pointed downward, intently gazing at all mean things which crawled below (including myself) and looking for all the world ike some Martian warrior peeping over the side of a circling aeroplane. "A Little Green Kingfisher skimmed down the water—dipped lazily at an open patch—missed—and passed on: A Shrike In a Willow tree made do-Fisive noises as if to say, "Bad shot—Bad shot". Then a flash of colour appeared from nowhere....and there, sitting on a stump, was that bird of tropical hues the Black-capped Kingfisher: legs. coral red; a black cap and white collar; back of cobalt blue with changing shades of Lilac according to the shifting ght; a dazzling stranger on his_way. 10 warmer climes....the sunshine and all the glamour of the South, Just then 'a great lorry came rumbling down the road; clouds of ashy pare Aicles blow gently across the breeze..and we were enveloped in the all-pervading dust: the Kingflsher's plumage faded and became arab, the bird seemed to shake his head in disgust and. bewilderment, then flow away. And T found. myself saying sadly, "I shall call you Ger= shom...for you have been a stranger in a sivange land." Funny, how these old biblical tags stick' to. one's memory, September 20—With the Harvest Moon riding high crops ye pouring
colton are taking tele Staggering way
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.