186 
WILD SCENES AND SONG-BIRDS. 
made to feel, as a public officer, that the 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 
ever}^ nerve. Now, still as any oak-stem of them all, you 
listen, bending towards the sound. Hark ! 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 ! 
