178 THE OPEN BOOK OF NATURE 
are very still, birds will approach us, and even rabbits 
will gambol not far away. That is one thing the 
young naturalist has to learn—to be quiet and 
patient. Use your eyes as much as you can ; open 
your ears to every sound, but make no movement 
and no noise. I was once sitting quietly on a hedge- 
bank, seeing many things to interest me, when a Hare 
came leisurely along a track, and actually jumped 
over my outstretched legs. I had never had so good 
a look at a Hare in a state of nature before. On 
another occasion I was resting on a boulder in the 
bed of a Scottish burn, when I noticed a big Rat 
gliding noiselessly about here and there without 
being at all distressed by my presence ; perhaps he 
thought I was part of the scenery. I have even had 
butterflies settle on my coat and sun themselves 
there. Study to be quiet. 
‘Had we not been sitting here, we might have over- 
looked the Moss which grows all about us. It is 
bigger and coarser than those Mosses which grow on 
the rockeries and walls at home. Here is some 
over six inches in height, green in the upper parts 
but looking withered at the base. What is particu- 
larly interesting is the stalked capsule which each 
plant seems to bear. See, each capsule is covered 
by a little brownish hood, which I can remove, just 
as if it were a candle-extinguisher ! “Now the hood 
is removed, you see the naked capsule, which is 
closed at the top by’a kind of beaked lid. There 
is a little ring which marks the junction of the lid 
and the main body of the capsule. Very soon that 
ring will break, the lid will fall off, and the spores 
which are ripening in the capsule will escape. From 
