Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 1 (1877).djvu/98

72 course of his collecting had frequently to send his specimens to other naturalists to be named, and thus he often lost them.

"Edward," we are told, "had to begin at the beginning with everything." He did not possess a single work on Natural History. He did not know the names of the birds and animals that he caught, or of the plants which he collected. For many years after he had begun his researches his knowledge of natural objects was obtained by chance. He knew little of the nature and habits of the creatures that he went to seek; he scarcely knew where or how to find them. Yet his very absence of knowledge proved a source of inexhaustible pleasure to him. All that he learnt of the form, habits, and characteristics of birds and animals was obtained by his own personal observation. Besides his intense love of Nature he possessed invincible determination, and this gave him an immense advantage. Whatever object in Natural History he desired to possess, if it were possible to obtain it, he never rested until he had succeeded. He sometimes lost for a time the object of which he was in search, because he wished to study its habits: for this purpose he would observe long and patiently before obtaining it, by which means he acquired an amount of information such as no book on Natural History could have supplied him with.

Dependent for an income upon his trade, he worked at it the livelong day, but early dawn and gathering twilight saw him far afield in eager search of natural living objects, while snatching his sleep at intervals between departing night and returning day. Occasionally, when kept late at work, he was prevented from enjoying his evening ramble. After going to bed, and taking a short sleep, he would set out in the dark in order to reach a particular spot by daylight, whence he would work his way homeward as the hour for business approached. Sometimes in his enthusiasm he would remain out all night, sleeping in a fox's or badger's "earth" which he had enlarged for the purpose: nor did he scruple to avail himself of a dry ditch, or even to lie upon the bare ground, when the exigencies of the case seemed to require it. How he managed to escape severe illness is a mystery; his constitution, it may be said, seemed "made to last." On such occasions his endurance was generally rewarded by some exciting adventure, or by the acquisition of some rare specimen of which he had long been in search.