66 THE SENSES OF ANIMALS 



the first sign of interest from the beasts — stay completely 

 still. 



I have been asked many times why, if one's initial move- 

 ments alert an animal or animals, these do not at once make 

 off whether the observer stays still or not. The answer is that 

 if one's approach has been normal and reasonably quiet the 

 animals will be alerted, but they will wait to find out what 

 ensues before running away. I have been able to watch deer 

 in fairly open country in this way — and deer of all species 

 are nervous creatures with very acute senses. 



An example of this kind of thing happened to me not so 

 long ago when I was wandering through an open wood on 

 a bright sunlit afternoon. I rounded a bend in a path and 

 saw — not twenty paces from me — a stoat dragging along a 

 freshly killed rabbit. I "froze" immediately; and although 

 the stoat spotted me rounding the bend and regarded me 

 with its sharp black eyes, it seemed as if my instant im- 

 mobility deceived it, or else my outline was not easily seen 

 against the background of trees and dense undergrowth. 

 After about a quarter of a minute the stoat, dragging its prey, 

 moved across the path and entered a deep cleft at the base 

 of an old oak into which it disappeared. As soon as it had 

 gone out of my sight, I squatted down, but remained quite 

 still. I wanted to know if the stoat's traditional curiosity 

 would cause it to reappear to see if danger was near. 



Nothing happened during a wait of some five minutes so 

 I concluded, rightly I think, that the stoat had a family to 

 feed. I left it to its domestic duties and walked quietly away. 

 This was an unimportant incident, but one which was of 

 some interest; and it proved how valuable it is to be able 

 to remain still and quiet at a moment's notice. Baden-Powell 

 in his instructions to Scouts put much emphasis on training 

 oneself to stay motionless for quite long periods. It is worth 

 following his advice though it takes some practice to do so 

 successfully. This kind of thing may seem a little juvenile, 

 but I have seen so many people — more than old enough to 

 know better — who were quite unable to remain motionless, 

 thus robbing themselves of opportunities for possibly unique 

 observations. 



As I have already said, there are some mammals with 



