them daily in winter. It is interesting to note, for instance, their different ways of singing, how some sing to make love to the hen birds, while others, like the barn-door cock, crow or sing to challenge another to fight. A herring gull makes an awful ass of himself when he tries to sing and to show himself off to the ladies, and an old crow is not much better.
It is also interesting to watch how the young birds hatch out: Some appear naked, with no feathers, and their eyes shut and their mouths open. Others, with fluffy kinds of feathers all over them, are full of life and energy. Young moorhens, for instance, swim as soon as they come out of the egg, young chickens start running about within a very few minutes, while a young sparrow is useless for days, and has to be fed and coddled by his parents.
Long also writes:
“Watch, say, a crow’s nest. One day you will see the mother bird standing near the nest and stretching her wings over her little ones. Presently the young stand up and stretch their wings in imitation. That is the first lesson.
“Next day, perhaps, you will see the old bird lifting herself to tip-toe and holding herself there by vigorous flapping. Again the young imitate, and soon learn that their wings are a power to sustain them. Next day you may see both parent birds passing from branch to branch about the nest, aided by their wings in the long jumps. The little ones join and play, and lo! they have learned to fly without even knowing that they were being taught.”
A good many birds are almost dying out, because so many boys bag all their eggs when they find their nests.
When a young bird falls out of the nest, its parents come to feed it.
Bird’s-Nesting
Bird’s-nesting is very like big-game shooting—you look out in places that, as a hunter, you know are likely places for the birds you want; you watch the birds fly in and out and you find the nest. But do not then go and destroy the nest and take all the eggs. If you are actually a serious collector, take one egg only and leave the rest, and above all, don’t pull the nest about, otherwise the parent birds will desert it, and all those eggs, which might have developed into jolly young birds, will be wasted.
Far better than taking an egg is to take a photo, or make a sketch of the mother bird sitting on her nest, or to make a collection of pictures of the different kinds of nests made by the different kinds of birds.
Fishes and Fishing
Every Scout ought to be able to fish in order to get food for himself. A tenderfoot who starved on the bank of a river full of fish would look very silly, yet it might happen to one who had never learned to catch fish.
Fishing brings out a lot of the points in Scouting, especially if you fish with a fly. To be successful you must know about the habits and ways of the fish, what kind of haunt he frequents, in what kind of weather he feeds and at what time of day, which kind of food he likes best, how far off he can see you, and so on. Without knowing these, you can fish away until you are blue in the face and never catch one.
A fish generally has his own particular haunt in the stream, and when once you discover a fish at home you can go and creep near and watch what he does.
Then you have to be able to tie very special knots with delicate gut, which is a bit of a puzzler to any boy whose fingers are all thumbs.
I will only give you a few here, but there are many others. These are drawn half tied, just before pulling tight.
Here is the overhand loop:
And you have to have infinite patience. Your line gets caught up in bushes and reeds, or in your clothes—or when it can’t find any other body it ties up in a knot round itself. Well, it’s no use getting angry with it. There are only two things to do—the first is to grin, and the second is to set to work very leisurely to undo it. Then you will have loads of disappointments in losing fis h through the line breaking, or other mishaps. But remember they happen to everybody who begins fishing, and are the troubles that in the end make it so very enjoyable when you get them.
Trout fishing demands great skill and cunning. A trout can put up a grand fight, and you must be alert to catch him.
When you catch your fish do as I do—only keep those you specially want for food or as specimens, put back the others the moment you have landed them. The prick of the hook in their leathery mouth does not hurt them for long, and they swim off quite happily to enjoy life in their water again.
If you use a dry fly, that is, keeping your fly sitting on top of the water instead of sunk under the surface, you have really to stalk your fish, just as you would deer or any other game, for a trout is very sharp-eyed and shy.
You can also catch fish by netting, or as Scouts often have to do, by spearing them with a very sharp three- pronged spear. I have done it many a time, but it requires practice.
Reptiles
Of course a Scout ought to know about snakes, because in almost all wild countries you come across plenty of them and many of them dangerous.
Snakes sometimes creep into tents and under blankets, or into boots. You will always notice an old hand in snake country look very carefully through his blankets before he turns in at night, and shake out his boots in the morning before putting them on. I even find myself doing it now at home, just from habit.
Snakes don’t usually like crawling over anything rough. So in India you often construct a kind of path, made of sharp, jagged stone, all round a house to prevent snakes crawling into it from the garden.
I used to catch snakes when I was at school by using a long stick with a small fork at the end of it. When I saw a snake I stalked him, jammed the fork down on his neck, and then tied him up the stick with strips of old handkerchief, and carried him back to sell to anybody who wanted a pet. But they are not good things to make pets of as a rule, because so many people have a horror of them, and it is not fair, therefore, to have them about in a house where people might get frightened by them.
Poisonous Snakes
