How Animals Talk 



whish of her wings as she circled the bog and the 

 splash as she took the water; but not till the 

 right signal came did I see a motion or a sign of 

 life from the hidden brood. 



The pond was shaped, as we have noticed, like a 

 pair of spectacles; and a favorite place for the 

 autumn flock to rest or preen or sleep was at the 

 bend between the two lobes. Down into that 

 bend ran a screen of alder-bushes, the only good 

 cover between woods and water on the entire pond ; 

 and it was so dense that a cat could hardly have 

 crept through it without making a disturbance. 

 That was one reason, I suppose, why the ducks 

 felt safe at the outer end of the tangle : they could 

 see everything in front or on either side, and hear 

 anything that moved behind them. 



One day, when the shore at this bend was freshly 

 starred by ducks' feet and littered with feathers, 

 showing that a large flock had just left the roost, 

 I began at the fringe of larches and cut a passage- 

 way, a regular beaver's tunnel, down the whole 

 length of the alder run, making an end in a point 

 of grass, where the water came close on three 

 sides. One had to consider only the birds' keen 

 ears, the alder screen being so thick that not 

 even a duck's eye could penetrate it; therefore 

 I smoothed the way most carefully, leaving no 

 stick below to crack under my weight, and no 



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