THE EVERYDAY LIFE OF ANIMALS
1. Variety of Life-2. Haunts of Life-3. Wealth of Form4. Wealth of Numbers-5. Wealth of Beauty
THE first steps towards an appreciation of animal life must be taken by the student himself, for no book-lore can take the place of actual observation. The student must wash the quartz and dig for the diamonds, though a book may help him to find these, and thereafter to fashion them into a treasure.
Happily, however, the raw material of observation is not rare like gold or diamonds, but near to us as sunshine and rain-drops. Within a few hours' walk of even the largest of our towns the country is open and the animals are at home. Though we may not be able to see "the buzzard homing herself in the sky, the snake sliding through creepers and logs, the elk taking to the inner passes of the woods, or the razor-billed auk sailing far north to Labrador," we can watch our own delightful birds building their "homes without hands," we can study the frogs from the time that they trumpet in the early spring till they or their offspring seek winter quarters in the mud, we can follow the bees and detect their adroit burglary of the