The Burgess Animal Book for Children

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"But the hunters with terrible guns came and killed them for their
skins, killed them by hundreds of thousands, and in just a few years
those great herds became only a memory. Thunderfoot, once Lord of
the Prairies, was driven out of all his great kingdom, and the Bison,
from being the most numerous of all large animals, is to-day reduced
to just a few hundreds, and most of these are kept in parks by man.
Barely in time did man make laws to protect Thunderfoot. Without
this protection he would not exist to-day.

"A close neighbor of Thunderfoot's in the days when he was Lord
of the Prairies was Fleetfoot the Antelope. Fleetfoot is about
the size of a small Deer, and in his graceful appearance reminds
one of Lightfoot, for he has the same trim body and long slim legs.
He is built for speed and looks it. From just a glance at him you
would know him for a runner just as surely as a look at Jumper the
Hare would tell you that he must travel in great bounds. The truth
is, Fleetfoot is the fastest runner among all my children in this
country. Not one can keep up with him in a race.

"Fleetfoot's coat is a light yellowish-brown on the back and white
underneath. His forehead is brown and the sides of his face white.
His throat and under side of his neck are white, crossed by two bands
of brown. His hoofs, horns and eyes are black, and there is a black
spot under each ear. Near the end of his nose he is also black, and
down the back of his neck is a black line of stiff longer hairs. A
large white patch surrounds his short tail. Who remembers what I
told you about Antelope Jack, the big Jack Hare of the Southwest?"

"I do!" cried Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare together.

"What was it, Jumper?" asked Old Mother Nature.

"You said that he has a way of making the white of his sides seem
to grow so that he seems almost all white, and can signal his
friends in this way," replied Jumper.

"Quite right," replied Old Mother Nature. "I am glad to find that
you remember so well. Fleetfoot does the same thing with this
white patch around his tail. The hairs are quite long and he can
make them spread out so that that white patch becomes much larger,
and when he is running it can be seen flashing in the sun long after
he is so far away that nothing else of him can be seen. His eyes
are wonderfully keen, so by means of these white patches he and his
friends can signal each other when they are far apart.

"Fleetfoot has true horns, but they are unlike any other horns in
that they are shed every year, just like the antlers of the Deer
family. They grow straight up just over the eyes, are rather short,
and fork. One branch is much shorter than the other, and the longer
one is turned over at the end like a hook. From these horns he gets
the name of Pronghorn.

"When running from danger he carries his head low and makes long
leaps. When not frightened he trots and holds his head high and
proudly. He prefers flat open country, and there is no more
beautiful sight on all the great plains of the West than a band of
Fleetfoot and his friends. He is social and likes the company of
his own kind.

"The time was when these beautiful creatures were almost as numerous
as the Bison, but like the latter they have been killed until now
there is real danger that unless man protects them better than he
is doing there will come a day when the last Antelope will be killed,
and one of the most beautiful and interesting of all my children will
be but a memory."

There was a note of great sadness in Old Mother Nature's voice.
For a few minutes no one spoke. All were thinking of the terrible
thing that had happened at the hands of man to the great hosts of
two of the finest animals in all this great land, the Bison and
Antelope, and there was bitterness in the heart of each one, for
there was not one there who did not himself have cause to fear man.

Old Mother Nature was the first to break the silence. "Now," said
she, "I will tell you of the oddest member of the Cattle and Sheep
family. It is Longcoat the Musk Ox, and he appears to belong
wholly neither to the Cattle nor the Sheep branch of the family,
but to both. He connects the two branches in appearance, reminding
one somewhat of a small Bison and at the same time having things
about him very like a Sheep.

"Longcoat the Musk Ox lives in the Farthest North, the land of snow
and ice. He has been found very near the Arctic Ocean, and how he
finds enough to eat in the long winter is a mystery to those who
know that snow-covered land. He is a heavily built, round-bodied
animal with short, stout legs, shoulders so high that they form a
hump, a low-hung head and sheeplike face, heavy horns which are
flat and broad at the base and meet at the center of the forehead,
sweeping down on each side of the head and then turning up in sharp
points. His tail is so short that it is hidden in the long hair
which covers him.

"This hair is so long that it hangs down on each side so that often
it touches the snow and hides his legs nearly down to his feet. In
color it is very dark-brown, almost black, and on his sides is
straight. But on his shoulders it is curly. In the middle of the
back is a patch of shorter dull-gray hair.

"Underneath this coat of long hair is another coat of woolly, fine
light-brown hair, so close that neither cold nor rain can get through
it. It is this warm coat that makes it possible for him to live in
that terribly cold region. He is about twice as heavy as a big Deer.
At times he gives off a musky odor, and it is from this that he gets
his name of Musk Ox.

"Longcoat is seldom found alone, but usually with a band of his
friends. This is partly for protection from his worst enemies, the
Wolves. When the latter appear, Longcoat and his friends form a
circle with their heads out, and it is only a desperately hungry
Wolf that will try to break through that line of sharp-pointed horns.

"In rough, rocky country he is as sure-footed as a Sheep. In the
short summer of that region he finds plenty to eat, but in winter he
has to paw away the snow to get at the moss and other plants buried
beneath it. Practically all other animals living so far North have
white coats, but Longcoat retains his dark coat the year through.

"My, how time flies! This is all for to-day. To-morrow I will
tell you of two wonderful mountain climbers who go with ease where
even man cannot follow."

CHAPTER XXXVIII Two Wonderful Mountain Climbers

"Peter, you have been up in the Old Pasture many times, so you
must have seen the Sheep there," said Old Mother Nature, turning
to Peter Rabbit.

"Certainly. Of course," replied Peter. "They seem to me rather
stupid creatures. Anyway they look stupid."

"Then you know the leader of the flock, the big ram with curling
horns," continued Old Mother Nature.

Peter nodded, and Old Mother Nature went on. "Just imagine him
with a smooth coat of grayish-brown instead of a white woolly one,
and immense curling horns many times larger than those he now has.
Give him a large whitish or very light-yellowish patch around a very
short tail. Then you will have a very good idea of one of those
mountain climbers I promised to tell you about, one of the greatest
mountain climbers in all the Great World--Bighorn the Mountain Sheep,
also called Rocky Mountain Bighorn and Rocky Mountain Sheep.

"Bighorn is a true Sheep and lives high up among the rocks of the
highest mountains of the Far West. Like all members of the order
to which he belongs his feet are hoofed, but they are hoofs which
never slip, and he delights to bound along the edges of great cliffs
and in making his way up or down them where it looks as if it would
be impossible for even Chatterer the Red Squirrel to find footing,
to say nothing of such a big fellow as Bighorn.

"The mountains where he makes his home are so high that the tops of
many of them are in the clouds and covered with snow even in summer.
Above the line where trees can no longer grow Bighorn spends his
summers, coming down to the lower hills only when the snow becomes
so deep that he cannot paw down through it to get food. His eyesight
is wonderful and from his high lookout he watches for enemies below,
and small chance have they of approaching him from that direction.

"When alarmed he bounds away gracefully as if there were great
springs in his legs, and his great curled horns are carried as
easily as if they were nothing at all. Down rock slopes, so
steep that a single misstep would mean a fall hundreds of feet,
he bounds as swiftly and easily as Lightfoot the Deer bounds
through the woods, leaping from one little jutting point of rock
to another and landing securely as if he were on level ground.
He climbs with equal ease where man would have to crawl and
cling with fingers and toes, or give up altogether.

"Mrs. Bighorn does not have the great curling horns. Instead she
is armed with short, sharp-pointed horns, like spikes. Her young
are born in the highest, most inaccessible place she can find, and
there they have little to fear save one enemy, King Eagle. Only
such an enemy, one with wings, can reach them there. Bighorn and
Mrs. Bighorn, because of their size, nothing to dread from these
great birds, but helpless little lambs are continually in danger
of furnishing King Eagle with the dinner he prizes.

"Only when driven to the lower slopes and hills by storms and snow
does Bighorn have cause to fear four-footed enemies. Then Puma the
Panther must be watched for, and lower down Howler the Wolf. But
Bighorn's greatest enemy, and one he fears most, is the same one
so many others have sad cause to fear--the hunter with his terrible
gun. The terrible gun can kill where man himself cannot climb, and
Bighorn has been persistently hunted for his head and wonderful horns.

"Some people believe that Bighorn leaps from cliffs and alights on
those great horns, but this not true. Whenever he leaps he alights
on those sure feet of his, not on his head.

"Way up in the extreme northwest corner of this country, in a place
called Alaska, is a close cousin whose coat is all white and whose
horns are yellow and more slender and wider spreading. He called
the Dall Mountain Sheep. Farther south, but not as far south as
the home of Bighorn, is another cousin whose coat is so dark that
he is sometimes called the Black Mountain Sheep. His proper name
is Stone's Mountain Sheep. In the mountains between these two is
another cousin with a white head and dark body called Fannin's
sheep. All these cousins are closely related and in their habits
are much alike. Of them all, Bighorn the Rocky Mountain Sheep is
the best known."

"I should think," said Peter Rabbit, "that way up there on those
high mountains Bighorn would be very lonesome."

Old Mother Nature laughed. "Bighorn doesn't care for neighbors as
you do, Peter," said she. "But even up in those high rocky retreats
among the clouds he has a neighbor as sure-footed as himself, one
who stays winter as well as summer on the mountain tops. It is
Billy the Rocky Mountain Goat.

"Billy is as awkward-looking as he moves about as Bighorn is graceful,
but he will go where even Bighorn will hesitate to follow. His hoofs
are small and especially planned for walking in safety on smooth rock
and ice-covered ledges. In weight he is about equal to Lightfoot the
Deer, but he doesn't look in the least like him.

"In the first place he has a hump on his shoulders much like the
humps of Thunderfoot the Bison and Longcoat the Musk Ox. Of course
this means that he carries his head low. His face is very long and
from beneath his chin hangs a white beard. From his forehead two
rather short, slim, black horns stand up with a little curve backward.
His coat is white and the hair is long and straight. Under this long
white coat he wears a thick coat of short, woolly, yellowish-white fur
which keeps him warm in the coldest weather. He seldom leaves his
beloved mountain-tops, even in the worst weather of winter, as Bighorn
sometimes does, but finds shelter among the rocks. The result is that
he has practically no enemies save man to fear.

"Often he spends the summer where the snow remains all the year
through and his white coat is a protection from the keenest eyes.
You see, when not moving, he looks in the distance for all the
world like a patch of snow on the rocks.

"Not having a handsome head or wonderful horns he has not been
hunted by man quite so much as has Bighorn, and therefore is not so
alert and wary. Both he and Bighorn are more easily approached from
above than from below, because they do not expect danger from above
and so do not keep so sharp a watch in that direction. The young
are sometimes taken by King Eagle, but otherwise Billy Goat's family
has little to fear from enemies, always excepting the hunter with
his terrible gun.

"I have now told you of the members of the cattle and Sheep family,
what they look like and where they live and how. There is still
one more member of the order Ungulata and this one is in a way
related to another member of Farmer Brown's barnyard. I will leave
you to guess which one. What is it, Peter?"

"If you please, in just what part of the Far West are the mountains
where Billy Goat lives?" replied Peter.

"Chiefly in the northern part," replied Old Mother Nature. "In the
Northwest these mountains are very close to the ocean and Billy
does not appear to mind in the least the fogs that roll in, and
seems to enjoy the salt air. Sometimes there he comes down almost
to the shore. Are there any more questions?"

There were none, so school was dismissed for the day. Peter didn't
go straight home. Instead he went up to the Old Pasture for another
look at the old ram there and tried to picture to himself just what
Bighorn must look like. Especially he looked at the hoofs of the
old ram.

"It is queer," muttered Peter, "how feet like those can be so safe
up on those slippery rocks Old Mother Nature told us about. Anyway,
it seems queer to me. But it must be so if she says it is. My, my,
my, what a lot of strange people there are in this world! And what
a lot there is to learn!"

CHAPTER XXXIX Piggy and Hardshell

All the way to school the next morning Peter Rabbit did his best to
guess who it might be that they were to learn about that day. "Old
Mother Nature said that he is related to some one who lives in Farmer
Brown's barnyard," said Peter to himself. "Now who can it be?" But
try as he would, Peter couldn't think of any one. He asked Jumper
the Hare if he had guessed who it could be. Jumper shook his head.

"I haven't the least idea," said he. "You know I seldom leave the
Green Forest and I never have been over to that barnyard in my
life, so of course I don't know who lives there."

Danny Meadow Mouse and Whitefoot the Wood Mouse were no wiser, nor
was Johnny Chuck. But Chatterer the Red Squirrel, it was plain to
see, was quite sure he knew who it was. Chatterer had been over
to Farmer Brown's so often to steal corn from the corn crib that
he knew all about that barnyard and who lived there. But though
Peter and the others teased him to tell them he wouldn't.

So when Old Mother Nature asked who had guessed to whom she had
referred Chatterer was the only one to reply. "I think you must
have meant the Pig who is always rooting about and grunting in
that barnyard," said he.

"Your guess is right, Chatterer," she replied, smiling at the little
red-coated rascal, "and this morning I will tell you a little about
a relative of his who doesn't live in a barnyard, but lives in the
forest, as free and independent as you are. It is Piggy the Peccary,
known as the Collared Peccary, also called Wild Pig, Muskhog, Texas
Peccary and Javelina.

"He is a true Pig and in shape resembles that lazy, fat fellow in
Farmer Brown's barnyard when he was little. You would know him for
a Pig right away if you should see him. But in every other way
excepting his habit of rooting up the ground with his nose, he is
a wholly different fellow. For one thing his legs, though short,
are more slender and he is a fast runner. There isn't a lazy bone
in him, and he is too active to grow fat.

"His head is large and his nose long, and his tail is almost no
tail at all; it is just a little rounded knob, as if he had at one
time had a tail and it had been cut off. His hair is coarse and
stiff, the kind of hair called bristles. From the back of his head
along his back the bristles are long and stout. They are black at
the tips so that he appears to have a black back. When Piggy is
angry he raises these long bristles so that they stand straight
up and this gives him a very fierce appearance.

"His color is so dark a gray that at a distance he appears black.
Indeed he is black on many parts of him. Just back of the neck a
whitish band crosses the shoulders, and this is why he is called
the Collared Peccary. You see he seems to be wearing a collar.
On each jaw are two great pointed teeth called tusks, the two
upper ones so long that they project beyond the lips. These tusks
are Piggy's weapons, and very good ones they are.

"The home of Piggy the Peccary is in the hot southwestern part of
this country, where live Jaguar and Ocelot, the beautiful spotted
members of the Cat family. They are two of his enemies. He never
likes to be alone, but lives with a band of his friends and they
roam about together. He is found on the plains and among low hills,
in swamps and dense forests, and among the thickets of cactus and
other thorny plants that grow in dry regions. Plenty of food and
shelter from the hot sun seem to be the main things with Piggy."

"What does he eat?" asked Peter Rabbit.

Old Mother Nature laughed. "It would be easier, Peter, to tell you
what he doesn't eat," said she. "He eats everything eatable, nuts,
fruits, seeds, roots and plants of various kinds, insects, Frogs,
Lizards, Snakes and any small animals he can catch. Sometimes he
does great damage to gardens and crops planted by man. He delights
to root in the earth with his nose and often turns over much ground
in this way, searching for roots good to eat.

"On the lower part of his back he carries a little bag of musky
scent, and from this he gets the name of Muskhog. While as a rule
he wisely runs from danger, he is no coward, and will fight fiercely
when cornered. His friends at once rush to help him and surround the
enemy, who is usually glad to climb a tree to escape their gnashing
tusks. However, he is not the fierce animal he has been reported to
be, ready to attack unprovoked. He will run away if he can. Mr. and
Mrs. Peccary have two babies at a time.

"This is the last of the hoofed animals and the last but one of the
land animals of this great country, so you see we are almost to the
end of school. This last one is perhaps the queerest of all. It
is Hardshell the Armadillo, and belongs to the order of Edentata,
which means toothless."

"Do you men to say that there are animals with no teeth at all?"
asked Happy Jack Squirrel, looking as if he couldn't believe such
a thing.

Old Mother Nature nodded. "That is just what I mean," said she.
"There are animals without any teeth, though not in this country,
and others with so few teeth that they have been put in the same
order with the wholly toothless ones. Hardshell the Armadillo is
one of these. He has no teeth at all in the front of his mouth
and such teeth as he has got do not amount to much."

"But why do you call him Hardshell?" asked Peter impatiently.

"Because instead of a coat of fur he wears a coat of shell," replied
Old Mother Nature, and then laughed right out at the funny expressions
on the faces before her. It was quite clear that Peter and his
friends were having hard work to believe she was in earnest. They
suspected her of joking.

"Do--do you mean that he lives in a sort of house that he carries
with him like Spotty the Turtle?" ventured Peter.

"It is a shell, but not like that of Spotty," explained Old Mother
Nature. "Spotty's shell is all one piece, but the Armadillo's shell
is jointed, so that he can roll up like a ball. Spotty isn't a
mammal, as are all of you and all those we have been learning about,
but is a reptile. Hardshell the Armadillo, on the other hand, is a
true mammal."

"Well, all I can say is that he must be a mighty queer looking
fellow," declared Peter.

"He is," replied Old Mother Nature. "He is about the size of Unc'
Billy Possum, and if you can imagine a pig of about that size with
very short legs, a long tapering tail, feet with toes and long claws
and a shell covering his whole body, the front of his face and even
his tail, you will have something of an idea what he looks like.

"He lives down in the hot Southwest where Piggy the Peccary lives.
His coat of shell is yellowish in color and is divided in the middle
of his body into nine narrow bands or joints. Because of this he
is called the Nine-banded Armadillo. In the countries to the south
of this he has a cousin with three bands and another with six.

Hardshell's head is very long and he carries it pointed straight
down. His small eyes are set far back, and at the top of his head
are rather large upright ears. The shell of his tail is divided
into many jointed rings so that he can move it at will.

"His tongue is long and sticky. This is so that he can run it
out for some distance and sweep up the Ants and insects on which
he largely lives. His eyesight and hearing are not very good,
and having such a heavy, stiff coat he is a poor runner. But he
is a good digger. This means, of course, that he makes his home
in a hole in the ground. When frightened he makes for this, but
if overtaken by an enemy he rolls up into a ball and is safe from
all save those with big and strong enough teeth to break through
the joints of his shell. He eats some vegetable matter and is
accused of eating the eggs of ground-nesting birds, and of dead
decayed flesh he may find. However, his food consists chiefly of
Ants, insects of various kinds, and worms. He is a harmless
little fellow and interesting because he is so queer. He is
sometimes killed and eaten by man and his flesh is considered very
good. He has from four to eight babies in the early spring. The
baby Armadillo has a soft, tough skin instead of a shell, and as
it grows it hardens until by the time it is fully grown it has
become a shell.

"Now this finishes the lessons about the land animals or mammals.
There are other mammals who live in the ocean, which is the salt
water which surrounds the land, and which, I guess, none of you
have ever seen. Some of these come on shore and some never do.
To-morrow I will tell you just a little about them, so that you
will know something about all the animals of this great country
which is called North America. That is, I will if you want me to."

"We do! Of course we do!" cried Peter Rabbit, and it is plain that
he spoke for all.

CHAPTER XL The Mammals of the Sea

It was the last day of Old Mother Nature's school in the Green Forest,
and when jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun had climbed high enough in the
blue, blue sky to peep down through the trees, he found not one missing
of the little people who had been learning so much about themselves,
their relatives, neighbors and all the other animals in every part of
this great country. You see, not for anything in the world would one
of them willingly have missed that last lesson.

"I told you yesterday," began Old Mother Nature, "that the land is
surrounded by water, salt water, sometimes called the ocean and
sometimes the sea. In this live the largest animals in all the
Great World and many others, some of which sometimes come on land,
and others which never do.

"One of those which come on land is first cousin to Little Joe
Otter and is named the Sea Otter.

He lives in the cold waters of the western ocean of the Far North.
He much resembles Little Joe Otter, whom you all know, but has finer,
handsomer fur. In fact, so handsome is his fur that he has been
hunted for it until now. He is among the shyest and rarest of all
animals, and has taken to living in the water practically all the
time, rarely visiting land. He lies on his back in the water and
gets his food from the bottom of the sea. It is chiefly clams and
other shellfish. He rests on floating masses of sea plants. He is
very playful and delights to toss pieces of seaweed from paw to paw
as he lies floating on his back. Of course he is a wonderful swimmer
and diver. Otherwise he couldn't live in the sea.

"Another who comes on land, but only for a very short distance from
the water, is called the Walrus. He belongs to an order called
Finnipedia, which means fin-footed. Instead of having legs and
feet for walking, members of this order have limbs designed for
swimming; these are more like fins or paddles than anything else
and are called flippers. The Walrus is so big that I can give
you no idea how big he is, excepting to say that he will weight
two thousand pounds. He is simply a great mass of living flesh
covered with a rough, very thick skin without hair. From his
upper jaw two immense ivory tusks hang straight down, and with
these he digs up shellfish at the bottom of the sea. It is a
terrible effort for him to move on shore, and so he is content to
stay within a few feet of the water. He also lives in the cold
waters of the Far North amidst floating ice. On this he often
climbs out to lie for hours. His voice is a deep grunt or
bellowing roar. The young are born on land close to the water.

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