How Animals Talk 



his wings as he whirled around my head. Between 

 my heels and the log on which I was sitting my 

 protector wedged himself securely; the owl with a 

 vicious snapping of his beak sailed up into an 

 evergreen and made himself invisible. In a mo- 

 ment or two the little dog came out and was 

 wagging his tail mightily over the adventure when 

 the owl slanted down on noiseless wings and 

 struck a double set of claws into him. Then I 

 interfered, rising to my feet; and then, for the 

 first time I think, the owl saw me as something 

 other than a stump and vanished quickly in the 

 spruce woods. 



Hawks likewise have marvelous eyes for all 

 things that move; but I began to question the 

 quality of their vision one day when I was watch- 

 ing a deer, and a red-shouldered hawk lit so near 

 me that I reached out a hand and caught him. 



Another afternoon I came upon a goshawk, 

 keenest of all the falcons, that had just killed a 

 grouse in the tote-road I was following. He 

 darted away as I came round a bend ; but think- 

 ing he might soon return, for he is a bold and a 

 persistent kind of pirate, I entered the woods at a 

 swift walk, as if going away. Then I worked 

 cautiously back to the road through a thicket, 

 and waited on a log in deep shadow, some fifty 

 yards above where the grouse lay undisturbed. 



[216] 



