A WONDERFUL HOME.

Otago Witness, Issue 2914, 19 January 1910, Page 86

A WONDERFUL HOME.

(Bv W. Beach Thomas, in the Daily Mail.)

HOW A GREAT NATURALIST LIVES.

On a beautiful November day I escaped from the excessive civilisation or New York to a naturalist’s home which has no parallel in the world and it says much for the native love of birds and animals in the English character that the ideal home is am Englishman’s. Mr Thompson Seton, the author of the most popular bock on natural history ever written, took his love of animals, now exercised officially in Canada and privately m the United States, from Durham ; and in his work across the Atlantic one sees just that close and affectionate habit of observation of wild animals that marks the tribe of Gilbert White, of Selborn-e. Mr Seton’s home has parallels jwi'th the wood which used to .surround Waterton s home. It is from some points of view less wonderful than the German sanctuary, growing more famous every day, of Baron Burlepsch, the inventor of the bird boxes which, through the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, are now to be found in hundreds of English gardens. But over and above the natural beauties of the sanctuary which hides and encircles his house 'Mr Seton has recently invented an animals’ haunt of quite original scope and pattern: it should have imitators in England. —The Hollow Tree. — In those days of scientific forestry the birds and animals that five in hollow trees are under a handicap which already begins to reduce their number. The danger has occurred to many people, bub Mr Seton was the first to strike out the brilliant idea of constructing hollow trees as one would construct a bird box. The hollow tree in this green-arch suburb owes much to its surroundings ; but a hollow tree is a hollow tree anywhere, and a source of endless imagination. From the tree-wrapped house high- above the water we made our zigzag way down to the lake side, and took our palaces in a light boat ■such as any Indian might have built and paddled. A narrow channel at the far end brought up into a second pool broken by a tiny island. On this stood a tail hollow tree that might have deceived a Dryad, a very nymph of the wood. Its bark, its tapering shape, its broken top, its rotting boughs were, if I may eay re. to the life; It was only on landing and getting within touch that one saw the art which strove most successfully to “outdo the life.” The moment the door was opened at the foot the artifice of the whole was revealed. On lbs floor fine sand was dusted, so that you might make out, if your woodlore was equal to the task, what visitors had entered by that way. We could on this occasion trace distinctly the fussy ■pattern of a. mouse’s wanderings and the more straightforward going of a grey squirrel. A, little bench raised a foot or so from the floor enabled one to study the patterns without disturbing them. From the bench to the tree-top a ladderway. alternating at stages from this side to- that, was fixed roughly, and yet with much economy of space, to the inside uprights, and you could climb up at your leisure to investigate the various devices with which the tree was enriched. They consisted chiefly of boxes of various sizes with differently-shaped openings. Each of the boxes, in addition to a spy hole, was fitted with a- door which could bo opened from the inside, enabling you to see from day to day what stuff had been brought in by what animal. Opposite the most convincing of the arms of the tree a. casement opened which gave a chance- • a chance that has been «®ad—-of photographing any bird winch chose this perch, and birds are especially fond of a dead bough. As the tree is on an island it can l>o reserved almost wholly for birds; but at the time two boughs were stretched .across from island to shore to serve as a. bridge for what- animals cared to make the adventure. A ! Hub for English Gardens.— The difficulties of setting up such a tree are small. The one absolute necessity is that the upright beams are firmly based.’ In this cane the island, so called, is in -essence a heap of stones piled up about, the uprights and the wide-angled weed buttresses by which they are supported. But neither stones nor buttresses wore visible to spoil the verisimilitude of tha t-re-e. It would be possibly to extend, this charming addition to bird homes. Adi

artificial tree of tlie likeness of a pollard tvi How would be very much more cheaply and easily erected than this famous tree on the Cos Cob Island ; and few trees are better appreciated by wrens, tree-creepers, and tits, or, if the hollows are too considerable, by vermin. In many cases it ■would be simple to re-erect an imported tree in the garden and adapt it for building. One such might be kept fox fourlagged animals and the other protected from them. No doubt Air Seton’s tree has the advantage of a surrounding not to be found elsewhere. It is in the midst of 150 acres of virgin wood on undulating ground. Though it is at the edge of a popular suburb, the wildest of birds, such as duck •and geese, stop there on migration ; and bittern, with several varieties of heron, haunt the waters. Owls are busy in the night time, and flying squirrels cross from bough to bough above your head, while the chipmunks and grey squirrels rustle in the undergrowth. I have mentioned but two or three of the peculiar wonders of this sanctuary. Here, also, was first practised the Indian camping for boys, whose games were invented by Mr 'Seton, and later absorbed and “translated into English ideas’’ for English boy scouts. The Indian stone, with its distinctive pattern facing each quarter, the totem pole, the circle of benches, were the first scene of an experiment in camp life which is now practised by many thousands of Americans, and in its different form by thousands of English boys. The place is one that should be left in perpetuity, both as an animal sanctuary and a. witness of the effective zeal of an English naturalist in an adopted country.