116 WILD FOWL SHOOTING. 
still woods, carrying welcome music to the alert 
ears of the hunter. He marks the direction, and 
stealthily proceeds in the direction of the resting birds, 
whence faint and almost indistinct calls are wafted 
to him; then some noisy duck, having partaken too 
freely of corn, and feeling the effects of its fermenta- 
tion, raises her pretty head and quacks so loudly 
that he marks the spot where the birds are located. 
His dog is filled with nervous apprehension lest he 
commit some act, show some movement that will at- 
tract the attention of the hordes of resting ducks. 
Cautiously the hunter raises his hand, as he turns and 
beams on his four-footed companion a look so full of 
warning. The dog interprets his master’s thoughts, 
and returns to him a bright look, so full of confidence 
and cautiousness. They understand each other: one 
is human, the other of the brute creation. The mas- 
ters mind shows his thoughts in his eager eyes ; the 
dog receives it, and is governed accordingly. No need 
of words,—their understanding is complete and satis- 
factory, and the dog treads noiselessly in the foot- 
steps of his master, carefully avoiding dried sticks, 
twigs and rattling leaves. The hunter desires to re- 
connoitre, and stooping over with trailing gun in hand, 
he steals toward the vast trunk of an ancient oak. As 
he nears it he drops gently, quietly on his knees, and 
lithes himself toward the objective tree. Gaining it, 
he rises carefully, peers intently round its wrinkled 
body, and drinks in with delight the pleasurable sight 
before him. As if the dog could read the innermost 
thoughts of his master’s mind, he imitates each move 
of the hunter, governed by the same thought, the dog 
advances, hesitates, stops, in exact conjunction with 
