Look, listen and learn

The keeper always goes on his rounds with every sense alert for signs and sounds that will help him to do his job more efficiently. While doing so, he often gathers a lot of information of apparently less practical value that may be classed loosely under the heading of natural history. It is true, of course, that this secondary knowledge can have a practical aspect at times, but the keeper derives pleasure from it because he is also a naturalist. Occasionally he gets information indirectly from fellow keepers and countrymen in general.

For example, I encountered a man the other day who had been destroying moles near the Solway. He told me