186 WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 



made to feel, as a public officer, that tlie way of duty is some- 

 times hard, indeed. 



But it is toward the hunter that our acquaintance manages 

 to display some of his most benevolently officious traits. 

 Every animal that ranges the forest is familiar with his alarm 

 notes and watchfully attentive to them ; they can tell on the 

 instant, the meaning of the cries, and to what kind of intru- 

 sion they refer whether it be fox, or wolf, owl, snake, or 

 man, and deport themselves accordingly. In every kind of 

 hunting for large game, they feel themselves called upon to 

 take a hand. In " driving " for deer, you have been placed 

 at your " stand," far away from any sound of the coming 

 hunt, in some solitary place, deep in the shadowy forest ; 

 rifle in hand you have paced restlessly back and forth, lis- 

 tening to your own heart beat, or starting when the squirrel 

 throws an acorn down, or the red-capped creeper scales the 

 dry bark from the limbs above, until you grow weary with 

 waiting, impatient of the silence, and shower imprecations 

 on the unlucky " driver " and his worthless hounds when, 

 suddenly a sound, borne faint upon the winds, thrills through 

 every nerve. Now, still as any oak-stem of them all, you 

 listen, bending towards the sound. Harkl Hark! again! 

 again ! the sound swells out. It is the pack the game is on 

 foot ! And now the air is burdened with the heavy roll, of 

 burst upon burst, swept fitfully by, as the eager pack rush 

 down the valley, or climb the opposing ridge in the swift 

 changes of the headlong chase. Now the face turns pale 

 the rifle is clutched hard the trembling nerves grow taut as 

 steel. 



Hark ! that wild, musical roar ! They are close at hand 

 the quarry must be near ! Now is the moment when si- 

 lence is worth a world to the eager huntsman : the cracking 

 of a stick may ruin all, for the deer, he knows, is listening 

 warily, and may be even now within gun-shot. He holds 

 his very breath ; another roar from the fierce pack yet closer 

 still, when a sudden shriek close to his ear Jay ! jay ! jay ! 



