Some Curious Notes from My Diary 



If you remain absolutely still and the wind is in your 

 favour wild birds and beasts, when deeply absorbed in 

 affairs of their own, will sometimes approach within a 

 few feet without becoming aware of your presence. One 

 day whilst lying close, to a wooden rail fence dividing a 

 rough pasture from a spinney I heard a family of great 

 tits chattering to each other as they hunted for insects 

 in a large thorn tree almost over my head. Presently 

 my attention was attracted by the rapid pattering of 

 small feet over a collection of dead leaves not far away, 

 and a pair of stoats came galloping along. They heard 

 the young birds overhead, and without the slightest 

 hesitation ran up the trunk of the thorn like a couple of 

 squirrels and tried, but unsuccessfully, to catch one of 

 the tits. 



Luckily for the chicks their watchful old mother 

 detected the danger in time and rang out an angry 

 alarm note which stampeded the whole family on the 

 instant. The stoats, quickly recognizing that their 

 chances had vanished, descended to the ground and 

 trotted away close past me, without, I am persuaded, 

 discovering my presence by sight or scent. 



Walking along the crown of a hill one evening with 

 a stereoscopic camera over my shoulder I saw a fox 

 sitting outside his " earth " or burrow deeply absorbed 

 in the doings of a number of workmen making a road 

 in the valley below. I crept steadily forward until I 

 was within a few yards of him, and quietly lowering the 

 legs of my tripod to the ground exposed a plate upon 

 him in a very poor light before he turned his head and 



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