ON HABITS OF OBSERVING. 43 



more than in any other department of science; at 

 least he can learn but little of the habits of animals 

 from his own autopsia. And perhaps it is not suffi- 

 ciently known or considered how near it may be pos- 

 sible to get even to the most timid animals, to watch 

 them in their actions, if the observer will be occasi- 

 onally content to remain still and motionless for a few 

 minutes. We have seated ourselves in a wood, and, 

 while keeping perfectly quiet, without moving a 

 limb, have had the hares sporting at our very feet, as 

 if quite unconscious of our proximity : the same 

 thing has occurred with the water-rat, one of the 

 shyest of our native quadrupeds, and which in gene- 

 ral darts into the water with great rapidity on the 

 slightest alarm. It is moving objects or the noise 

 of some one approaching, which most readily 

 frightens animals. Yet even where it becomes ne- 

 cessary to advance, in order to see anything of their 

 ways, as where they are feeding at a distance in open 

 ground, we may sometimes, by dint of great caution 

 and patience, get almost completely up to them, with- 

 out causing them to fly. We must only be careful 

 to take very short steps, and at intervals, always 

 desisting the moment our object shows any apprehen- 

 sions, and remaining stock-still, till we see it re- 

 suming its former state of ease, and returning to its 

 food, or to whatever else it is occupied with. By 

 these means, we remember once succeeding in 

 actually getting so close to an old rabbit feeding upon 

 a lawn, as to secure it with a common walking-stick, 

 where there was nothing whatever to conceal our ap- 

 proach to the animal, which appeared in perfect 



