Book Summary by Linda Brown

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Although I like the ideas presented in this book, half of the enjoyment was in the way the book was written. First published in 1919, it is “old-timey” and has somewhat archaic syntax. For example, Long referred to wild animals as “wood folk”. It is also interesting to know that some of the ideas Long presented in 1919 were at that time taboo among scientists.

Long mostly wrote about animals other than domestic pets, although in the first chapter he described a comic interaction between his old setter, Don and a younger, energetic terrier named Nip. They presented a little comedy where Nip’s frantic behavior of barking and thumping his tail finally got the lazy old Don up and led him to a cornered woodchuck. Nip had tried to confront the woodchuck, gotten afraid and then gone and enlisted Don’s help. Any other time, Don would have maintained his position of lying on the floor, regardless of Nip’s urging him to get up. Long wondered how the old dog knew what the younger one meant when he came to get him to help in his stand against the woodchuck. Was it that old Don could smell the woodchuck and thus knew what Nip wanted? Was there some kind of communication that passed between the two dogs? Long believed that the most common form of animal communication is telepathy.

He also studied how animals communicate with each other through inarticulate cries. These cries signify hunger, loneliness, anger, pleasure and other emotions. Animals are mostly quiet, but by learning to be observant, human beings can learn much about the animal language. Because the same species of animal reacts in so many different ways to the language of its own kind is evidence that animals share a language. The crows come nearer to something resembling human speech than many other animals. When you hear a solitary crow calling monotonously “haw” from a tree, dipping his head as he repeats it, somewhere close by will be a flock of crows on the ground feeding. The solitary crow is on guard and telling them everything is well. When the crow is warning, the cry (although still a “haw”) sounds different, has a different inflection. The other crows understand these different meanings of the same word. Other animals that seem to understand the crow talk are deer and fox.

Usually with a crow’s distress cry, a female will appear upon the scene. However, with a battle cry or excited “hawing”, the additional bird to appear is usually a male. Of the birds, Long claimed that the crow is the most intelligent.

Wolves, too, have different calls for food, help, hunting and assembly. The higher orders of birds and beasts have calls which project excitement in such a way that it causes the same excitement in others of the same species. Wolves not only receive silent messages from each other, but also from hunters, whose excitement sends off an alarm.

Many animals have deep emotional lives and a sense of justice.

The three things most different from an animal than a human are (1) an animal keeps the spirit of play, (2) an animal lives in his sensations and is happy and (3) an animal is always alive in the moment. Animals are more responsive to impressions of the external world than are humans

Long wrote about a word called chumfo, which represents a perfect interaction of the five senses animals have when they are at their best. This word does not mean a sixth sense, but is descriptive of an animal’s extraordinary powers of sense perception. Animals respond to a change in air pressure. They react to things, not with one sense, but with their entire bodies. Chumfo implies all that is meant by instinct or intuitive knowledge. An animal does not always learn of danger through his ears or nose, but through chumfo. It is all of his senses working together as one.

The author recounted an incident where prior to an earthquake, a deer and two fawns knelt in the woods and stayed on their knees, as if they knew something he didn’t. Moments later the ground began trembling beneath him and he realized the deer had known the earthquake was imminent, yet he hadn’t. The premonitions of danger seem to be common among animals.

Long also wrote of dogs that responded to the approach of their owner’s automobile before it cold be seen or heard. Animals appear to have inherited a power of silent communication over great distances and Long believed this to be a natural gift of the animal mind. Some pets seem to enter their owner’s moods, as though the owner’s vibrations fill a room and can be read by the pet.

The telepathic faculty occurs more often among animals that habitually live in flocks or herds and can especially be observed between the mother animal and her young. Among foxes, the vixen seems to have the family under control always, silently. Silent communication happens most among animals that are gregarious.

Whales also are very sensitive to external impressions, unseen danger, and changes in wind or tide or barometric pressure.

An entire chapter of the book was devoted to the idea of members of a flock or herd acting in unison, as if governed by a single will rather than by individual motives. This is collective action. Long discounts this because, in birds (1) this happens only when an unusually large number of birds of the same kind are gathered together, and (2) this is only seen when birds are emotionally excited, never when they are migrating or feeding or fleeing danger. He discounts the swarm spirit of bees as well, because they do not always do the same thing at the same time. He maintained that the bees don’t grow angry all at once, but successively. Long stated that each animal has individual senses. He believed the entire herd instinct is a myth, that the animals merely act in unison because one of them detects danger and sends a warning to the others.

There are certain people who almost seem to have magical powers around animals, so calm are the animals, even seeming to seek out the company of these humans. Long told a story of one such very quiet man of few words with whom Long was riding in a carriage. The man told Long to take the reins a few moments. Long did so in such a manner that the horse could not possibly have known they switched the reins from one man to the other, yet the horse flung up his head and his behavior immediately changed.

Perhaps the best advice for observing animals in the wild is, “If you want to see game, leave your gun at home.” Go quietly through the woods, projecting the idea of peace. Emotional excitement from hunters seems to touch animals. Creatures can “feel out” a man. Animals seem to be able to detect whether an approaching human or animal is in a dangerous or harmless mood.

The way to get to know animals is through long-term observation, patience and sympathy, none of which can be learned with a gun in your hand. Wild creatures are naturally timid (a protective instinct). Humans have changed the behaviors of many animals through their fear responses to our presence. Wood creatures dislike being watched; they don’t like to find a pair of eyes staring at them. Mostly they desire to be let alone. They trust quietness to conceal them; however, they are curious. If you want to learn about them, sit still and let the animals come to you. Remain motionless. As long as the animal thinks he has been unseen, he is most likely not going to attack you. Birds and beasts of prey live peaceably when not hungry.

Not only do you need to be physically quiet, but mentally quiet as well. Animals sense fear and they sense excitement. Their noses lose track of you after you have been quiet for a while. A motionless man gives off little scent. Regarding their sense of smell, they can’t smell as well when a wild gale is blowing as they can in calm. In a wind they can be approached as easily from one side as from another. Also, many animals don’t see well. “To stand motionless without concealment is often the best way to deceive a wild animal.”

Long found a secret pond to which he often went in order to observe nature. The pond was hidden in a caribou bog, which was also hidden in a forest. The greatest attraction to his pond was deer; second to that, black mallards. He pointed out that when frequenting the same forest area, trees that all look alike to a stranger will begin to be seen as individual. Learning to know animals in such a place, their natural setting, lets you learn them where they are at home and unafraid. He described his pond as having a personality, pointing out that there are places in nature we can visit, which tell us new things about our natural selves, the wood folk, and even the universe. These places teach us to go softly, without intention of doing harm to any living beast, but only of watching them while we ourselves stay unseen. This is how to learn of the quiet ways of wood folk. This is where the meaning of silence can be found.

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