Watched by Wild Animals — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Watched by Wild Animals
John Stuart Mill · en
By the entrance of Rocky’s den lay a large, flat slab of granite,
several feet long. This was raised upon boulders. He stacked his hay
beneath the edge of this outreaching slab and upon the slab he spent
hours each day, except in busy haymaking time.
With back against his rock, without a move for an hour or longer, he
would sit in one spot near his den. Now and then he sent forth a call
as though asking a question, and then gravely listened to the
responses of far-off conies. Occasionally he appeared to repeat a
call as though relaying a message from his station. Many of these
“Skee-eks” may at times be just common cony talk, while others, given
with different speeds and inflections, sometimes are quick and
peculiarly accented, and probably warn of possible danger or tell of
the approach of something harmless.
One spring day I came by Rocky’s place and he was not in sight. I
waited long, then laid my sweater upon his slab of granite and went on
to the home of another cony. On returning Rocky was home. Like a
little watch dog he sat upon the sweater.
Another time in June he was out in the hay meadow eating the short
young plants. I stood within ten feet of him and he went on eating as
though he did not know I was there. Occasionally he called “Ke-ack”
that appeared to be relayed to far-off conies. He did not seem to be
watching me but the instant I moved he darted beneath a rock out of
sight.
Conies are shy wherever I have found them, and I found many in places
possibly not before visited by people.
Rocky’s nearest cony neighbour was more than two hundred feet away
across the boulders. During a winter visit to him I found cony tracks
which indicated that these two conies had exchanged calls.
The cony appears something of a traveller, something of an explorer. A
number climb to the summit of the nearest peak during the summer and
occasionally one goes far down into the lower lands.
A few times I have seen them as explorers on top of Long’s Peak and
other peaks that rise above 14,000 feet; and occasionally a cony comes
to my cabin and spends a few days looking around, taking refuge, and
spending the nights in the woodpile. My cabin is at 9,000 feet, and
the nearest cony territory is about a mile up the mountainside.
One snowy day, while out following a number of mountain sheep, I
passed near the home of Rocky and turned aside hoping to see him.
Before reaching his rock I saw a weasel coming toward me with a limp
cony upon his shoulder and clutched by the throat. The weasel saw me
and kept on coming toward me, and would, I believe, have brushed by.
He appeared in a hurry to take his kill somewhere, probably home.
I threw a large chunk of snow which struck upon a rock by him. He fell
off the rock in scrambling over the snow. But he clung to the cony and
dragged it out of reach beneath a boulder.