How Animals Talk 



fowl to be suspicious of the black freebooter and 

 to be alert when they see or hear him; but no 

 sooner do you begin to hunt with a gun than you 

 learn a thing to make you respect the crow, and 

 perhaps to make you wonder how much or how 

 very little you know of the ways of the wood folk. 

 Many of the ducks, the black or dusky mallards 

 especially, like to come ashore every day in a 

 secluded spot under the lee of a bank, there to 

 rest or preen or take a quiet nap in company. It 

 is a tempting sight to see a score or a hundred of 

 the splendid birds in a close group, their heads 

 mostly tucked under their wings; but it is prac- 

 tically impossible to stalk them, for the reason 

 that the crows are forever ranging the shore, and 

 a crow never passes a group of sleeping ducks 

 without lifting his flight to take a look over the 

 bank behind them. What his motive is no man 

 can say; we only note that, in effect, he stands 

 sentinel for the ducks against a common enemy, 

 as he habitually does for his own kind. There is 

 no escaping that keen, searching glance of his ; he 

 sees you creeping through the beach-grass or hid- 

 ing behind a bush. He flings out a single haw! 

 with warning, danger, derision in it; and now the 

 same ducks that have heard him all day without 

 concern spring aloft on the instant and head 

 swiftly out to sea. 



[20) 



