I have before me a great number of note-books filled with observations, remarks, ideas, hints, and suggestions of all kinds by him. He carried them about during his walks, and while he was always watching the infinite wealth and variety of Nature, the multitudinous forms of life, he was always noting down what he saw. To read these note-books is like reading an unclassified index to the works of Nature. And since they throw so much light upon his methods, and prove--if that wanted any proof--how careful he was to set down nothing that had not been noted and proved by himself, I have copied some few pages, which are here reproduced. Observe that these extracts are taken almost at random from two or three note-books. The writing is cramped, and in parts very difficult to make out. "_Oct. 16, 1878._--Wasp and very large blue-fly struggling, wrestling on leaf. In a few seconds wasp got the mastery, brought his tail round, and stung twice or thrice; then bit off the fly's proboscis, then the legs, then bit behind the head, then snipped off the wings, then fell off leaf, but flew with burden to the next, rolled the fly round, and literally devoured its intestines. Dropped off the leaf in its eager haste, got on third leaf, and continued till nothing was left but a small part of the body--the head had been snipped off before. This was one of those large black flies--a little blue underneath--not like meat flies, but bigger and squarer, that go to the ivy. Ivy in bloom close by, where, doubtless, the robber found his prey and seized it. "While the other leaves fall, the thick foliage of the fir supports the leaves that have been wafted to it, so that the fir's branches are thickly sprinkled with other leaves." "_Surrey, Oct. 27._--Red-wings numerous, and good many fieldfares. "Ivy, brown reddish leaves, and pale-green ribs." "_Oct. 29._--Saw hawk perched on telegraph line out of railway-carriage window. Train passed by within ten yards; hawk did not move. "Street mist, London, not fog, but on clear day comes up about two-thirds the height of the houses." "_Nov. 3._--The horse-chestnut buds at end of boughs; tree quite bare of leaves; all sticky, colour of deep varnish, strongly adhesive. These showed on this tree very fully. "Golden-crested wren, pair together Nov. 3; 'cheep-cheep' as they slipped about maple bush, and along and up oak bough; motions like the tree-climber up a bough; the crest triangular, point towards beak, spot of yellow on wing. "Still day; the earth holds its breath." "_Nov. 11._--Gold-crested wren and tom-tit on furze clinging to the very spikes, and apparently busy on the tiny green buds now showing thickly on the prickles. "The contemplation of the star, the sun, the tree raises the soul into a trance of inner sight of nature."