WOODCRAFT: OR, KNOWLEDGE OF ANIMALS AND NATURE

Habits of Animals.—If you live in the country it is, of course quite easy to observe and watch the habits of all sorts of animals great and small. But if you are in a town there are many difficulties to be met with. But at the same time if you can keep pets of any kind, rabbits, rats, mice, dogs or ponies you can observe and watch their habits and learn to understand them well; but generally for Scouts it is more easy to watch birds, because you see them both in town and country; and especially when you go into camp or on walking tours you can observe and watch their habits, especially in the spring-time.

Training young ones to fly.

Then it is that you see the old birds making their nests, hatching out their eggs and bringing up their young; and that is of course the most interesting time for watching them. A good observant scout will get to know the different kinds of birds by their cry, by their appearance, and by their way of flying. She will also get to know where their nests are to be found, what sort of nests they are, what are the colors of the eggs and so on. And also how the young appear. Some of them come out fluffy, others covered with feathers, others with very little on at all. The young pigeon, for instance, has not feathers at all, whereas a young moorhen can swim about as soon as it comes out of the egg; while chickens run about and hunt flies within a few minutes; and yet a sparrow is quite useless for some days and is blind, and has to be fed and coddled by his parents.

Then it is an interesting sight to see the old birds training their young ones to fly by getting up above them and flapping their wings a few times until all the young ones imitate them. Then they hop from one twig to another, still flapping their wings, and the young ones follow suit and begin to find that their wings help them to balance; and finally they jump from one branch to another for some distance so that the wings support them in their effort. The young ones very soon find that they are able to use their wings for flying, but it is all done by degrees and by careful instruction.

If you think there is no natural history or observation of bird life possible in the city, get hold of that delightful book “Lives of the Hunted,” by Ernest Seton Thompson. There you will find a ripping story of Randy and Biddy, the two sparrows, who built a nest between them after wonderful differences of opinion. Randy started to make it of sticks, and Biddy almost declined to live with him in consequence, so he carefully pulled every stick out and dropped them on the pavement and gave in to her preferring for hay and straw. Then they used string. But when she brought feathers he drew the line and argued the point. However, the story should be read to be enjoyed as it stands in that book.

Then a large number of our birds do not live all the year round in England, but they go off to Southern climes such as Africa when the winter comes on. In September you will see the migrating birds collecting to go away, the starlings in their crowds and the swallows for the South, and the warblers, the flycatchers, and the swifts. And yet about the same time the large are arriving, so there is a good deal of travelling to and from among the birds in the air at all times of the year.

How to draw.—By the way, talking of birds, every Scout ought to be able to draw one.

First, of course, you lay the egg. Then put a watch on it, with the second dial to show the time. But before you put in the hands it becomes a bird. Then you add the outline, thus:—

Try it yourself. It is quite easy.

Reptiles.—There is a lot of interest to be got out of watching reptiles, such as frogs, which begin as tadpoles, eating weeds, and gradually lose their tails and gills, which they begin with, and end up as frogs, eating worms and slugs as food.

Insects.—Insects, too, are very interesting little people when you get to know their ways and habits. Among them you can generally find moths, ants, gnats, butterflies, bees, beetles, ladybirds, and all such. Though most girls do not care very much about them, Scouts who have studied them get to like them, even spiders and daddy-longlegs, and to take a close interest in them.

Caddis worms, for instance, build the most beautiful houses of mosaic work, all formed of tiny stones and bits of shell glued on to a silken lining which the caddis worms make themselves.

The caddis worm has extraordinary jaws which he can fold up when they are in the way, and he can also push himself along in the water by squirting out a strong jet of water all round him. A caddis worm is really only the larva of a large sort of dragon fly; so when he wants to change into a winged insect, he cleverly spins a silken door across each end of his tubular house, and fixes it on to the stalk of a plant near the water. Then he waits till his wings have grown, and at last he crawls out and runs up the plant out of the water, and flies away into the sunshine.

Butterfly-hunting is a most exciting pastime. You go out with your net and your box, and chase the pretty creatures over field and swamp, and hedge and ditch. If possible, try not to spoil the wings, and then keep them alive in a cage or a greenhouse. You can keep the eggs they lay, and bring up a large family for next year. You can make your own net if you buy a yard of stout wire, and bend it round, and bind the ends tightly and neatly to a cane or stick.

Make your net long enough to hang across the wire, when your butterfly is caught, thus:—

Examine the wings carefully with a magnifying glass, as the tiny scarlet and yellow feathers are easily rubbed off and spoilt, especially if the creature flutter about.

Personally I don’t use a net; I catch them by drawing their portraits in my sketch-book. It saves a lot of trouble to them and to me.

Trees.—Then Scouts should know all about the different trees in their country and know their names by their appearance in summer and also in winter; and what they are good for, and what their leaves are like and their flower or their fruit as the case may be. It helps you very much in camp to know what kind of wood burns well, such as pine wood or sugar bush or gum tree. Also which kinds of wood are best for carving, for making walking sticks, for painting on.

The common trees which a Scout should know by sight are:

Flowers.—Flowers, of course, interest girls as much as any kind of plant, because they are easily cultivated, and every Scout ought to know the names of most of the common flowers and to understand how they live and how they ought to be treated; when to plant them and when to expect them coming up; and how they produce their seed and how they send it about and re-plant themselves in different parts near them.

For instance, if you have a magnifying glass you can examine a dandelion seed with it. Few things are more beautiful. It is much the same as a thistle seed, tucked away cleverly till it is ripe, and it all opens into a delicate feathery kind of parachute each carrying a seed. This blows about with the wind many miles before it actually falls to the ground and there sows itself.

Poplar.

Elm.

Plane.

Sycamore.

Ash.

Spanish Chestnut.

Most flowers seem to have the wish to scatter their seed far away from them. Even the modest little violet sows its seed out of a little boat-shaped pod with great force and a loud report to a distance of some three feet; and so does the iris, the pansy, the wall-flower, and many others. Many flowers and plants produce berries and fruits which are good to eat, others produce those that are poisonous; and a Scout should know which are which, since when you are in camp some of them may come in very useful, whereas others which look tempting to eat may cause you a great deal of trouble and illness.

Eatable Plants

But especially you ought to know what kind of plants are useful to you in providing you with food. Supposing you were out in a jungle without any food, as very often happens; if you knew nothing about plants you would probably die of starvation, or of poisoning, from not knowing which fruit or roots were wholesome and which dangerous to eat.

There are numbers of berries, nuts, roots, barks, and leaves that are good to eat.

The same with crops of different kinds of corn and seed, vegetable roots, and even grasses and vetches. Seaweed is much eaten in Ireland and Scotland. Such as laver, sloke, dulse, ulva, etc.

No less than fifteen kinds of fungi (that’s the plural of fungus!), or mushrooms, are good to eat if you can only tell them from the poisonous kinds.

Dandelions, nettles, rose berries, bracken roots, lime buds, and many other common plants make useful foods.

But you have to know which is which when you see them, and then know how to cook or prepare them.

Woodland cooking is great fun when you care to do it.

Nature Study in Towns

Many people seem to think that you cannot get Nature study unless you are out in the fields or woods studying the animals or noticing the plants, but you can do a great deal in town and even in your own room with others, or even by yourself.

For one thing, just think of the wonder of your own eye if you study it in the glass, and the delicacy of its construction; how it is like a bubble which a very slight blow would destroy altogether. Then from the eye go the nerves carrying back what it has seen of visible things to the brain, where the thoughts which are invisible take it over, the thought then gives the desire or the power to move. That is to say, your eyes show you something on the table and the invisible thought comes in your mind that you would like to catch hold of it, and the thought then makes the material sinews of your arm get to work and grasp it.

You cannot see your thought, but you know it is there, and you see the result of your thought when you grasp the thing. In the same way God is not visible, but all the same he is there, and you see the result when you do a good act. Sometimes you don’t do that good act, or you may do one that is not suggested by God. You may well feel ashamed when this happens and refuse to let yourself do it again. Therefore, try and think before doing a thing and ask yourself the question “Does God want me to do this?” If the reply in your mind says “Yes,” then do it; and if it says “No,” then don’t do it. It is not a difficult thing to live a straight and clean life if you only REMEMBER to think first and do after.

Stalking

How to Hide Yourself.—When you want to observe wild animals you have to stalk them, that is, creep up to them without their seeing or smelling you.

A hunter when he is stalking wild animals keeps himself entirely hidden, so does the war scout when watching or looking for the enemy; a policeman does not catch pickpockets by standing about in uniform watching for them; he dresses like one of the crowd, and as often as not gazes into a shop window and sees all that goes on behind him reflected as if in a looking-glass.

If a guilty person finds himself being watched, it puts him on his guard, while an innocent person becomes annoyed. So, when you are observing people, don’t do so by openly staring at them, but notice the details you want to at one glance or two, and if you want to study them more, walk behind them; you can learn just as much from a back view, in fact more than you can from a front view, and, unless they are scouts and look round frequently, they do not know that you are observing them.

War scouts and hunters stalking game always carry out two important things when they don’t want to be seen.

Background.—One is—they take care that the ground behind them, or trees, or buildings, etc., are of the same color as their clothes.

And the other is—if an enemy or a deer is seen looking for them, they remain perfectly still without moving so long as he is there.

“Freezing.”—In that way a scout, even though he is out in the open, will often escape being noticed. This is called by scouts “Freezing.”

Tracking

“Sign” is the word used by Scouts to mean any little details, such as footprints, broken twigs, trampled grass, scraps of food, old matches, etc.

Any one of you might win the reward of $100 for tracing the writer of a typewritten paper which nearly caused the ruin of a large bank. It was noticed by signs that the writer must have used a Remington machine No. 7, because of the shape of the letters. The type was much worn, therefore it is supposed the machine was four or five years old. Now, who bought one at that time? Then you could see that the letter “o” had a bent bar, the letter “r” had a faulty spring, and the top of the capital letter “C” was worn away. So you see that if you found a machine with all these faults you could trace the person who used it, from even such very small signs.

Some native Indian trackers were following up the footprints of a panther that had killed and carried off a young kid. He had crossed a wide bare slab of rock, which, of course, gave no mark of his soft feet. The tracker went at once to the far side of the rock where it came to a sharp edge; he wetted his finger, and just passed it along the edge till he found a few kid’s hairs sticking to it. This showed him where the panther had passed down off the rock, dragging the kid with him. Those few hairs were what Scouts call “sign.”

This tracker also found bears by noticing small “sign.” On one occasion he noticed a fresh scratch in the bark of a tree, evidently made by a bear’s claw, and on the other he found a single black hair sticking to the bark of a tree, which told him that a bear had rubbed against it.

A Scout should have her head screwed on the right way, not as in this picture.

One of the most important things that a Scout has to learn is to let nothing escape her attention; she must notice small points and signs, and then make out the meaning of them; but it takes a good deal of practice before a tenderfoot can get into the habit of really noting everything and letting nothing escape her eye. It can be learnt just as well in a town as in the country, provided that your head is screwed on the right way.

And in the same way you should notice any strange sound or any peculiar smell, and think for yourself what it may mean. Unless you learn to notice “sign” you will have very little of “this and that” to put together, and so you will be of no use as a Girl Scout. It comes by practice. Remember a Scout always considers it a great disgrace if an outsider discovers a thing before she herself does, whether that thing is far away or close by.

Don’t only look at the path before you, but frequently turn and look back. Notice the features of the country behind you, to see what your road will look like in coming back again.

In the streets of a strange town a Girl Scout will mark her way by the principal buildings and side-streets, and in any case she will notice what shops she passes and what is in their windows; also what vehicles pass her, and such details as whether the horses’ harness and shoes are all right; and most especially what people she passes, what their faces are like, their dress, their boots, and their way of walking, so that if, for instance, she should be asked by a policeman, “Have you seen a man with dark overhanging eyebrows, dressed in a blue suit, going down this street?” she should be able to give some such answer as “Yes; he was walking a little lame with the right foot, wore foreign-looking boots, was carrying a parcel in his hand; he turned down Gold Street, the second turning on the left from here, about three minutes ago.”

Information of that kind has often been of the greatest value in tracing out a criminal, but so many people go along with their eyes shut and never notice things.

Horses’ Tracks

Walking.

Trotting.

Canter.

Galloping.

Lame Horse Walking: Which leg is he lame in?
N.B.—The long feet are the hind feet.

These are the tracks of two birds on the ground. One lives generally on the ground, the other in bushes and trees.
Which track belongs to which bird?

Wheel tracks should also be studied till you can tell the difference between the track of a gun, a carriage, a country car, motor-car or a bicycle, and the direction they were going in.

In the story of Kim, by Rudyard Kipling, there is an account of two boys being taught “observation,” in order to become detectives by means of a game in which a trayful of small objects was shown to them for a minute and was then covered over, and they had to describe all the things on it from memory.

We will have that game, as it is excellent practice for Scouts.

Details of People.—It is of interest when you are travelling by train or tram to notice little things about your fellow-travellers—their faces, dress, way of talking, and so on—so that you could describe them each pretty accurately afterwards; and also try and make out from their appearance and behavior whether they are rich or poor (which you can generally tell from their boots), and what is their probable business, whether they are happy, or ill, or in want of help.

But in doing this you must not let them see you are watching them, else it puts them on their guard.

Reading a Meaning in Sign.—It is said that you can tell a man’s character from the way he wears his hat. If it is slightly on one side, the wearer is good-natured; if it is worn very much on one side, he is a swaggerer; if on the back of his head, he is bad at paying his debts; if worn straight on the top, he is probably honest but very dull.

The way a man (or a woman) walks is often a good guide to his character—witness the fussy, swaggering little man paddling along with short steps and much arm-action; the nervous man’s hurried, jerky stride; the slow slouch of the loafer; the smooth, quick, and silent step of the Scout, and so on.

Judging character by the gait of a man.

With a little practice in observation you can tell pretty accurately a man’s character from his dress.

How would you recognize that a gentleman was fond of fishing? If you see his left cuff with little tufts of cloth sticking up, you may be sure he fishes. When he takes his flies off the line he will either stick them into his cap to dry, or hook them into his sleeve. When dry he pulls them out, which often tears a thread or two of the cloth.

It is surprising how much of the sole of the shoes you can see when behind a person walking—and it is equally surprising how much meaning you can read from that shoe. It is said that to wear out soles and heels equally is to give evidence of business capacity and honesty; to wear your heels down on the outside means that you are a person of imagination and love of adventure; but heels worn down on the inside signify weakness and indecision of character, and this last sign is more infallible in the case of man than in that of woman.

Remember how “Sherlock Holmes” met a stranger and noticed that he was looking fairly well-to-do, in new clothes with a mourning band on his sleeve, with a soldierly bearing and a sailor’s way of walking, sunburns, with tattoo marks on his hands, and he was carrying some children’s toys in his hand. What would you have supposed that man to be? Well, Sherlock Holmes guessed correctly that he had lately retired from the Marines as a sergeant, that his wife had died, and that he had some small children at home.

Details in the Country.—If you are in the country, you should notice landmarks—that is, objects which help you to find your way or prevent you getting lost—such as distant hills and church towers; and nearer objects, such as peculiar buildings, trees, gates, rocks, etc.

And remember in noticing such landmarks that you may want to use your knowledge of them some day for telling some one else how to find his way, so you must notice them pretty closely so as to be able to describe them unmistakably and in their proper order. You must notice and remember every by-road and footpath.

Remembrance of these things will help you to find your way by night or in fog when other people are losing themselves.

Using your Eyes.—Let nothing be too small for your notice—a button, a match, a hair, a cigar ash, a feather, or a leaf might be of great importance, even a fingerprint which is almost invisible to the naked eye has often been the means of detecting a crime.

Not long ago a lady reported to the police that she was sitting in her room reading quietly in the corner when a ragged-looking man crept in at the open window, seized hold of a silver vase, and was in the act of making off with it when a sound outside disturbed him.

He put down the vase again, ran away across the lawn, jumped a low hedge, and got away.

Detectives came and examined the ground, but could find no footmarks even at the spot where the man had landed from his jump. Then they inspected the vase very carefully, and examined the fingers of the different people in the house.

They then reported that nobody except the maid had handled the vase and that nobody had gone across the lawn or jumped the hedge.

It was afterwards found that the lady was subject to delusions, and had imagined the whole thing, but the detectives had arrived at the same conclusion through examining the fingermarks and signs.

When out in the country you must keep your eyes about you and not merely notice small signs close to you, but other signs far away as well—such as dust flying, birds startled, unnatural movements of bush or grass, and also keep your ears open for sounds such as cracking of a twig, dogs suddenly barking and so on.

The battle of Boomplatz, fought by the British against the Boers, was successful for us partly because Sir Harry Smith, the Commander, noticed some buck in the distance suddenly startled and running for no apparent reason, but his suspicions being aroused he sent scouts to investigate, and they found a Boer force trying to form an ambush for him, and he was able to defeat their aims in consequence.

By night of course you must use your ears instead of your eyes and practice at this helps to make perfect.

A trained Scout will see little signs and tracks, she puts them together in her mind, and quickly reads a meaning from them such as an untrained woman would never arrive at.

And from frequent practice she gets to read the meaning at a glance, just as you do a book, without the delay of spelling out each word, letter by letter.

I was one day, during the Matabele War [show on map] with a native out scouting near to the Matopo Hills over a wide grassy plain. Suddenly we crossed a track freshly made in grass, where the blades of grass were still green and damp, though pressed down; all were bending one way, which showed the direction in which the people had been travelling. Following up the track for a bit it got on to a patch of sand, and we then saw that it was the spoor of several women (small feet with straight edge, and short steps) and boys (small feet, curved edge, and longer strides), walking, not running, towards the hills, about five miles away, where we believed the enemy to be hiding.

Then we saw a leaf lying about ten yards off the track. There were no trees for miles, but we knew that trees having this kind of leaf grew at a village fifteen miles away, in the direction from which the footmarks were coming. It seemed likely therefore that the women had come from that village, bringing the leaf with them, and had gone to the hills.

On picking up the leaf we found it was damp, and smelled of native beer. The short steps showed that the women were carrying loads. So we guessed that according to the custom they had been carrying pots of native beer on their heads, the mouths of the pots being stopped up with bunches of leaves. One of these leaves had fallen out; but we found it ten yards off the track, which showed that at the time it fell a wind was blowing. There was no wind now, i. e., seven o’clock, but there had been some about five o’clock.

So we guessed from all these little signs that a party of women and boys had brought beer during the night from the village 15 miles away, and had taken it to the enemy on the hills, arriving there soon after six o’clock.

The men would probably start to drink the beer at once (as it goes sour in a few hours), and would, by the time we could get there, be getting sleepy and keeping a bad look-out, so we should have a favourable chance of looking at their position.

We accordingly followed the women’s track, found the enemy, made our observations, and got away with our information without any difficulty.

And it was chiefly done on the evidence of that one leaf. So you see the importance of noticing even a little thing like that.

Games in Stalking

Girl Scout Hunting.—One Scout is given time to go out and hide herself, the remainder then start to find her; she wins if she is not found, or if she can get back to the starting-point within a given time without being touched.

Dispatch Running.—A Scout is told to bring a note to a certain spot or house from a distance within a given time: other hostile Scouts are told to prevent any message getting to this place, and to hide themselves at different points to stop the dispatch carrier getting in with it.

To count as a capture, two Scouts must touch the dispatch runner before she reaches the spot for delivering the message.

Relay Race.—One patrol pitted against another to see who can get a message sent a long distance in shortest time by means of relays of runners or cyclists. The patrol is ordered out to send in three successive notes or tokens (such as sprigs of certain plants), from a point, say, two miles distant or more. The leader in taking her patrol out to the spot, drops Scouts at convenient distances, who will then act as runners from one post to the next and back. If relays are posted in pairs, messages can be passed both ways.

Stalking.—Captain acts as a deer—not hiding, but standing, moving a little now and then if she likes.

Scouts go out to find, and each in her own way tries to get up to her unseen.

Directly the Captain sees a Scout she directs her to stand up as having failed. After a certain time the Captain calls “Time,” all stand up at the spot which they have reached, and the nearest wins.

The same game may be played to test the Scouts in stepping lightly—the umpire being blindfolded. The practice should preferably be carried out where there are dry twigs lying about, and gravel, etc. The Scout may start to stalk the blind enemy at 100 yards’ distance, and she must do it fairly fast—say, in one minute and a half—to touch the blind man before she hears her.

Stalking and Reporting.—The umpire places herself out in the open and sends each Scout or pair of Scouts away in different directions about half a mile off. When she waves a flag, which is the signal to begin, they all hide, and then proceed to stalk her, creeping up and watching all she does. When she waves the flag again, they rise, come in, and report each in turn all that she did, either by handing in a written report or verbally, as may be ordered. The umpire meantime has kept a look-out in each direction, and, every time she sees a Scout, she takes two points off that Scout’s score. She, on her part, performs small actions, such as sitting down, kneeling up, looking through glasses, using handkerchief, taking hat off for a bit, walking round in a circle a few times, to give Scouts something to note and report about her. Scouts are given three points for each act reported correctly. It saves time if the umpire makes out a scoring card beforehand, giving the name of each Scout, and a number of columns showing each act of her, and what mark that Scout wins, also a column of deducted marks for exposing themselves.

The “Spider and Fly” game as described in the English book “Scouting for Boys” is also a proper one and useful for training in observation.

Plant Race.—The Scouts start off either cycling or on foot, to go in any direction they like to get a specimen of any ordered plants, a horseshoe mark from a chestnut tree, a briar rose or something of the kind, whichever the Captain may order, such as will tax their knowledge of plants and will test their memory as to where they noticed one of the kind required, and will also make them quick in getting there and back.

Leaf Trail.—It is supposed that a crime has been done, and in the search for the culprits who have hidden themselves, the police were helped in tracing the track by articles left behind them. The fugitives leave behind a dozen of certain leaves, such as oak, or chestnut or fir, laid in the order in which those trees come on the track. The trackers take note of these during the fifteen minutes start. The trackers must then follow wherever these trees are to be found, in the right order, until they can find the fugitives. Should they not be successful another day may be spent over it.

House Hunting

It is an interesting thing to take as the object of a walk the selection of a house where you would like to live. Notice the position, estimate the cost of rent, rates, taxes, etc., notice its garden and how you would utilise it, and, inside, what kind of wall-paper, etc., you would select so it would be homely and not merely for show, in good taste and not tawdry, airy and not stuffy with too many hangings, which will clean, and so on. Proximity to the necessary supply shops, doctor, telephone, post office, and so on should all be taken into consideration, and it is rather amusing to compare notes with the rest of your Patrol at the end of your expedition, and see how many got on the same house.

Hints to Instructors

Practices in Observation.—Instructor can take the finger-marks of each girl. Lightly rub the thumb on blacklead or on paper that is blackened with pencil, then press the thumb on paper and examine with magnifying glass. Show that no two people’s prints are alike.

In Towns.—Practice your girls first in walking down a street to notice the different kinds of shops as they pass, and to remember them in their proper sequence at the end.

Then to notice and remember the names of the shops.

Then to notice and remember the contents of a shop window after two minutes’ gaze. Finally, to notice the contents of several shop windows in succession with half a minute at each. Give marks for the fullest list.

The Scouts must also notice prominent buildings as landmarks, and the number of turnings off the street they are using.

In the Country.—Take the patrol out for a walk and teach the girls to notice distant prominent features such as hills, church steeples, and so on; and as nearer landmarks such things as peculiar buildings, trees, rocks, gates, by-roads or paths, nature of fences, crops, different kinds of trees, birds, animals, tracks, people, vehicles, etc. Also any peculiar smells of plants, animals, manure, etc.; whether gates or doors were open or shut, whether any smoke from chimney, etc.

Send Scouts out in pairs.

It adds to the value of the practice if the instructor makes a certain number of small marks in the ground beforehand, or leaves buttons or matches, etc., for the girls to notice or to pick up and bring in (as a means of making them examine the ground close to them as well as distant objects.)

Practices in Natural History.—Take out Scouts to get specimens of leaves, fruits, or blossoms of various trees, shrubs, etc., and observe the shape and nature of the tree both in summer and in winter.

Collect leaves of different trees; let Scouts make tracings of them and write the name of the tree on each.

In the country make Scouts examine crops in all stages of their growth, so that they know pretty well by sight what kind of crop is coming up.

Start gardens if possible; either a patrol garden or individual Scout gardens. Let them grow flowers and vegetables for profit to pay for their equipment, etc. Show all the wild plants which may be made use of for food. Find yew trees; report if any good branches to make archers’ bows of.

Encourage the keeping of live pets, whether birds, animals, reptiles, insects. Show how to keep illustrated diary-records of plants, insects, birds, etc., giving dates when seen for comparison following year and showing their peculiar markings, form, etc.

If in a town take your Scouts to the Zoological Gardens, menagerie, or Natural History Museum, and show them particular animals on which you are prepared to lecture. Not more than half a dozen for one visit.

If in the country get farmer or shepherd to help with information on the habits of farm animals, e.g., how a cow lies down and when. How to milk, stalk rabbits, water voles, trout, birds, etc., and watch their habits.

The aim in your Nature study is to develop a realisation of God the Creator, and to infuse a sense of the beauty of Nature.