How Animals Talk 



intelligent head it is; but his action seemed to 

 say that he did not see me when he passed literally 

 under my nose. To him I was merely a stump, 

 one of a dozen that projected here or there above 

 the ice near the shore. 



Such an incident would be merely freakish if it 

 happened once; but it happens again and again, 

 becoming almost common or typical, when a man 

 stands motionless in the presence of other birds 

 or beasts. Twice in the big woods has the Canada 

 lynx, a dull beast in comparison with the otter, 

 passed me with an unseeing stare in his wild eyes. 

 And I have crouched in the snow on a treeless 

 barren while a band of caribou filed past, so near 

 that I could see the muscles ripple under their 

 sleek skins and hear the click-click of their hoofs as 

 they walked. The greater part of the herd did 

 not even notice me; the rest threw a passing 

 glance in my direction, one halting as if he had a 

 moment's doubt, and went on without a sign of 

 recognition. 



The eyes of birds are keener, as a rule ; but it is 

 still a question with me how much or how little 

 they see of what is plain as a frog on a log to 

 human vision. An owl has excellent eyes, which 

 are at their best in the soft twilight; yet once as 

 I sat quiet in the dusk a horned-owl swooped and 

 struck at a motion of my head, not seeing the rest 



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