True Nature: The Lives of Peter Matthiessen

"Feather-footed through the plashy fen passes the questing vole"," is Evelyn Waugh's take on the gentleman naturalist in "Scoop" (1938) a role which Peter Matthiessen seems to have taken to heart.

It's a job. Somebody has to note the first cookoo of spring.

Eventually this... whatever it is, almost gets somewhere.

TL;DR: the CIA recruited people in the 1950s.