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The Burgess Animal Book for Children

T >> Thornton W. Burgess >> The Burgess Animal Book for Children




"Huh!" interrupted Johnny Chuck. "That was easy enough. I pushed
all the sand out of the main doorway so that there would be nothing
to attract the attention of any one passing near those back doorways.
Those back doorways are very handy in time of danger."

"Do you always have three doorways?" asked Happy Jack.

"No," replied Johnny Chuck. "Sometimes I have only two and once in
a while only one. But that isn't really safe, and I mean always to
have at least two."

"Do you use the same house year after year?" piped up Striped Chipmunk.

Johnny shook his head. "No," said he. "I dig a new hole each spring.
Mrs. Chuck and I like a change of scene. Usually my new home isn't
very far from my old one, because I am not fond of traveling.
Sometimes, however, if we cannot find a place that just suits us,
we go quite a distance."

"Are your babies born down in that little bedroom in the ground?"
asked Jumper the Hare.

"Of course," replied Johnny Chuck. "Where else would they be born?"

"I didn't know but Mrs. Chuck might make a nest on the ground the
way Mrs. Peter and Mrs. Jumper do," replied Jumper meekly.

"No, siree!" replied Johnny. "Our babies are born in that little
underground bedroom, and they stay down in the ground until they
are big enough to hunt for food for themselves."

"How many do you usually have?" inquired Chatterer the Red Squirrel.

"Six or eight," replied Johnny Chuck. "Mrs. Chuck and I believe
in large families."

"Do you eat nuts like the rest of our family?" inquired
Striped Chipmunk.

"No," replied Johnny Chuck. "Give me green food every time. There
is nothing so good as tender sweet clover and young grass, unless
it be some of those fine vegetables Farmer Brown grows in his garden"

Peter Rabbit nodded his head very emphatically as if he quite agreed.

"I suppose you are what is called a vegetarian, then," said Happy
Jack, to which Johnny Chuck replied that he supposed he was. "And
I suppose that is why you sleep all winter," added Happy Jack.

"If I didn't I would starve," responded Johnny Chuck promptly.
"When it gets near time for Jack Frost to arrive, I stuff and stuff
and stuff on the last of the good green things until I'm so fat I
can hardly waddle. Then I go down to my bedroom, curl up and go
to sleep. Cold weather, snow and ice don't worry me a bit."

"I know," spoke up Striped Chipmunk. "I sleep most of the winter
myself. Of course I have a lot of food stored away down in my
house, and once in a while I wake up and eat a little. Do you
ever wake up in the winter, Johnny Chuck?"

"No," replied Johnny. "I sleep right through, thank goodness.
Sometimes I wake up very early in the spring before the snow is
all gone, earlier than I wish I did. That is where my fat comes
in handy. It keeps me warm and keeps me alive until I can find
the first green plants. Perhaps you have noticed that early in
the spring I am as thin as I was fat in the fall. This is
because I have used up the fat, waiting for the first green
things to appear."

"Do you have many enemies?" asked Peter Rabbit, who has so many
himself that he is constantly thinking of them.

"Not many, but enough," growled Johnny Chuck. "Reddy Fox, Old Man
Coyote, men and Dogs are the worst. Of course, when I was small I
always had to be watching out for Hawks, and of course, like all
the rest of us little folks, I am afraid of Shadow the Weasel.
Reddy Fox has tried to dig me out more than once, but I can dig
faster than he can. If he ever gets me cornered, he'll find that I
can fight. A small Dog surprised me once before I could get to my
hole and I guess that Dog never will tackle another Woodchuck."

"Time is up," interrupted Old Mother Nature. "Johnny Chuck has a
big cousin out in the mountains of the Great West named Whistler,
and on the prairies of the Great West he has a smaller cousin named
Yap Yap. They are quite important members of the Marmot family, and
to-morrow I'll tell you about them if you want me to. You need not
come tomorrow, Johnny Chuck, unless you want to," she added.

Johnny Chuck hung his head, for he was a little ashamed that he had
been so unwilling to come that morning.

"If you please, Mother Nature," said he, "I think I'll come. I didn't
know I had any close relatives, and I want to know about them."

So it was agreed that all would be on hand at sun-up the next
morning, and then everybody started for home to think over the
things they had learned.



CHAPTER VIII Whistler and Yap Yap

Johnny Chuck was the first one on hand the next morning. The fact
is, Johnny was quite excited over the discovery that he had some
near relatives. He always had supposed that the Woodchucks were a
family by themselves. Now that he knew that he had some close
relatives, he was filled with quite as much curiosity as ever Peter
Rabbit possessed. Just as soon as Old Mother Nature was ready to
begin, Johnny Chuck was ready with a question. "If you please,"
said he, "who are my nearest relatives?"

"The Marmots of the Far West," replied Old Mother Nature. "You
know, you are a Marmot, and these cousins of yours out there are
a great deal like you in a general way. The biggest and handsomest
of all is Whistler, who lives in the mountains of the Northwest.
The fact is, he is the biggest of all the Marmot family."

"Is he much bigger than Johnny Chuck?" asked Peter Rabbit.

"Considerably bigger," replied Old Mother Nature, nodding her head.
"Considerably bigger. I should think he would weight twice as much
as Johnny."

Johnny's eyes opened very wide. "My!" he exclaimed, "I should like
to see him. Does he look like me?"

"In his shape he does," said Old Mother Nature, "but he has a very
much handsomer coat. His coat is a mixture of dark brown and white
hairs which give him a grayish color. The upper part of his head,
his feet and nails are black, and so are his ears. A black band
runs from behind each ear down to his neck. His chin is pure white
and there is white on his nose. Underneath he is a light, rusty
color. His fur is thicker and softer than yours, Johnny; this is
because he lives where it is colder. His tail is larger, somewhat
bushier, and is a blackish-brown."

"If you please, why is he called Whistler?" asked Johnny Chuck eagerly.

"Because he has a sharp, clear whistle which can be heard a very long
distance," replied Old Mother Nature. "He sits up just as you do.
If he sees danger approaching he whistles, as a warning to all his
relatives within hearing."

"I suppose it is foolish to ask if he lives in a hole in the ground
as Johnny Chuck does," spoke up Peter Rabbit.

"He does," replied Old Mother Nature. "All Marmots live in holes in
the ground, but Whistler lives in entirely different country. He
lives up on the sides of the mountains, often so high that no trees
grow there and the ground is rocky. He digs his hole down in between
the rocks."

"It must be a nice, safe hole," said Peter. "I guess he doesn't
have to worry about being dug out by Reddy fox."

"You guessed quite right," laughed Old Mother Nature. "Nevertheless,
he has reason to fear being dug out. You see, out where he lives,
Grizzly, the big cousin of Buster Bear, also lives, and Grizzly is
very fond of a Marmot dinner when he can get one. He is so big and
strong and has such great claws that he can pull the rocks apart and
dig Whistler out. By the way, I forgot to tell you that Whistler is
also called the Gray Marmot and the Hoary Marmot. He lives on grass
and other green things and, like Johnny Chuck, gets very fat in the
fall and then sleeps all winter. There are one or two other Marmots
in the Far West who live farther south than does Whistler, but their
habits are much the same as those of Whistler and Johnny Chuck. None
of them are social. I mean by that you never find two Marmot homes
very close together. In this they differ from Johnny's smaller cousin,
Yap Yap the Prairie Dog. Yap Yap wouldn't be happy if he didn't have
close neighbors of his own kind. He has one of the most social
natures of all my little people."

"Tell us about him," begged Happy Jack Squirrel before Johnny Chuck,
who is naturally slow, could ask for the same thing.

"Yap Yap is the smallest of the Marmot family," said Old Mother
Nature. "In a way he is about as closely related to the Ground
Squirrels as he is to the Marmots. Johnny Chuck has only four
claws on each front foot, but Yap Yap has five, just as the Ground
Squirrels have. He looks very much like a small Chuck dressed in
light yellow-brown. His tail for the most part is the same color
as his coat, but the end is black, though there is one member of
the family whose tail has a white tip. In each cheek is a small
pouch, that is, a small pocket, and this is one of the things that
shows how closely related to the Spermophiles he is.

"As I said before, Yap Yap is very social by nature. He lives on
the great open plains of the West and Southwest, frequently where it
is very dry and rain seldom falls. When you find his home you are
sure to find the homes of many more Prairie Dogs very close at hand.
Sometimes there are hundreds and hundreds of homes, making a regular
town. This is because the Prairie Dogs dearly love the company of
their own kind."

"Does Yap Yap dig the same kind of a hole that I do?" asked
Johnny Chuck.

"In a way it is like yours," replied Old Mother Nature, "but at the
same time it is different. In the first place, it goes almost
straight down for a long distance. In the second place there is no
mound of sand in front of Yap Yap's doorway. Instead of that the
doorway is right in the very middle of the mound of sand. One reason
for this is that when it does rain out where Yap Yap lives it rains
very hard indeed, so that the water stands on the ground for a short
time. The ground being flat, a lot of water would run down into
Yap Yap's home and make him most uncomfortable if he did not do
something to keep it out. So he brings the sand out and piles it
all the way around his doorway and presses it down with his nose.
In that way he builds up a firm mound which he uses for two purposes;
one is to keep the water from running down the hole, and the other is
as a sort of watch tower. He sits on the top of his mound to watch
for his enemies. His cousins with the white tail digs a hole more
like yours.

"Yap Yap loves to visit his neighbors and to have them visit him.
They are lively little people and do a great deal of talking among
themselves. The instant one of them sees an enemy he gives a signal.
Then every Prairie Dog scampers for his own hole and dives in head
first. Almost at once he pops his head out again to see what the
danger may be."

"How can he do that without going clear to the bottom to turn
around?" demanded Peter

"I wondered if any of you would think of that question," chuckled
Old Mother Nature. "Just a little way down from the entrance Yap
Yap digs a little room at one side of his tunnel. All he has to do
is to scramble into that, turn around and then pop his head out.
As I said before, his tunnel goes down very deep; then it turns and
goes almost equally far underground. Down there he has a nice
little bedroom. Sometimes he has more than one."

"If it is so dry out where he lives, how does he get water to drink?"
asked Happy Jack.

"He doesn't have to drink," replied Old Mother Nature. "Some folks
think that he digs down until he finds water way down underneath,
but this isn't so. He doesn't have to have water. He gets all
the moisture he needs from the green things he eats."

"I suppose, like the rest of us, he has lots of enemies?" said Peter.

Old Mother Nature nodded. "Of course," said she. "Old Man Coyote
and Reddy Fox are very fond of Prairie Dog. So are members of the
Hawk family. Then in some places there is a cousin of Shadow the
Weasel called the Black-footed Ferret. He is to be feared most of
all because he can follow Yap Yap down into his hole. There is a
cousin of Hooty the Owl called the Burrowing Owl because it builds
its home in a hole in the ground. You are likely to find many
Burrowing Owls living in Prairie Dog villages. Also you are apt
to find Buzztail the Rattlesnake there.

"A lot of people believe that Yap Yap, Buzztail and the little
Burrowing Owl are the best of friends and often live together in
the same hole. This isn't so at all. Buzztail is very fond of
young Prairie Dog and so is the Burrowing Owl. Rather than dig a
hole for himself the Owl will sometimes take possession of one of
Yap Yap's deserted holes. If he should make a mistake and enter a
hole in which Yap Yap was at home, the chances are that Yap Yap
would kill the Owl for he knows that the Owl is an enemy. Buzztail
the Rattlesnake also makes use of Prairie Dog holes, but it is safe
to say that if there are any Prairie Dog babies down there they
never live to see what the outside world is like. So Buzztail
and the Burrowing Owl are really enemies instead of friends of
Yap Yap, the Prairie Dog."

"Why is he called a Dog?" asked Peter.

Old Mother Nature laughed right out. "Goodness knows," said she. "He
doesn't look like a Dog and he doesn't act like a Dog, so why people
should call him a Dog I don't know, unless it is because of his habit
of barking, and even his bark isn't at all like a Dog's--not nearly
so much so as the bark of Reddy Fox. Now I guess this will do for
to-day. Haven't you little folks had enough of school?"

"No," cried Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare and Happy Jack and
Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk and Johnny Chuck.
"We want to know about the rest of the members of the order of
Rodents or Gnawers," added Peter. "Of course in a way they are sort
of related to us and we want to know about them."

Old Mother Nature laughed good-naturedly. "All right," said she,
"come again to-morrow morning and we'll see what more we can learn."



CHAPTER IX Two Queer Little Haymakers

There is nothing like a little knowledge to make one want more.
Johnny Chuck, who had gone to school only because Old Mother Nature
had sent for him, had become as full of curiosity as Peter Rabbit.
The discovery that he had a big, handsome cousin, Whistler the
Marmot, living in the mountains of the Far West, had given Johnny
something to think about. It seemed to Johnny such a queer place
for a member of his family to live that he wanted to know more
about it. So Johnny had a question all ready when Old Mother
Nature called school to order the next morning.

"If you please, Mother Nature," said he, "does my cousin, Whistler,
have any neighbors up among those rocks where he lives?"

"He certainly does," replied Old Mother Nature, nodding her head.
"He has for a near neighbor one of the quaintest and most interesting
little members of the big order to which you all belong. And that
order is what?" she asked abruptly.

"The order of Rodents," replied Peter Rabbit promptly.

"Right, Peter," replied Old Mother Nature, smiling at Peter. "I
asked that just to see if you really are learning. I wanted to
make sure that I am not wasting my time with you little folks.
Now this little neighbor of Whistler is Little Chief Hare."

Instantly Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare pricked up their long
ears and became more interested than ever, if that were possible.
"I thought you had told us all about our family," cried Jumper,
"but you didn't mention Little Chief."

"No," said Old Mother Nature, "I didn't, and the reason I didn't
was because Little Chief isn't a member of your family. He is
called Little Chief Hare, but he isn't a Hare at all, although he
looks much like a small Rabbit with short hind legs and rounded
ears. He has a family all to himself and should be called a Pika.
Some folks do call him that, but more call him a Cony, and some
call him the Crying Hare. This is because he uses his voice a
great deal, which is something no member of the Hare family does.
In size he is just about as big as one of your half-grown babies,
Peter, so, you see, he really is a very little fellow. His coat
is grayish-brown. His ears are of good size, but instead of being
long, are round. He has small bright eyes. His legs are short,
his hind legs being very little longer than his front ones. He
has hair on the soles of his feet just like the members of the
hare family."

"What about his tail?" piped up Peter Rabbit. You know Peter is
very much interested in tails.

Old Mother Nature smiled. "He is worse off than you, Peter," said
she, "for he hasn't any at all. That is, he hasn't any that can be
seen. He lives way up among the rocks of the great mountains above
where the trees grow and often is a very near neighbor to Whistler."

"I suppose that means that he makes his home down in under rocks,
the same as Whistler does," spoke up Johnny Chuck.

"Right," replied Old Mother Nature. "He is such a little fellow
that he can get through very narrow places, and he has his home
and barns way down in among the rocks."

"Barns!" exclaimed Happy Jack Squirrel. "Barns! What do you mean
by barns?"

Old Mother Nature laughed. "I just call them barns," said she,
"because they are the places where he stores away his hay, just as
Farmer Brown stores away his hay in his barn. I suppose you would
call them storehouses."

At the mention of hay, Peter Rabbit sat bolt upright and his eyes
were wide open with astonishment. "Did you say hay?" he exclaimed.
"Where under the sun does he get hay way up there, and what does
he want of it?"

There was a twinkle in Old Mother Nature's eyes as she replied,
"He makes that hay just as you see Farmer Brown make hay every
summer. It is what he lives on in the winter and in bad weather.
Little Chief knows just as much about the proper way of making hay
as Farmer Brown does. Even way up among the rocks there are places
where grass and peas-vines and other green things grow. Little
Chief lives on these in summer. But he is as wise and thrifty as
any Squirrel, another way in which he differs from the Hare family.
He cuts them when they are ready for cutting and spreads them out
on the rocks to dry in the sun. He knows that if he should take
them down into his barns while they are fresh and green they would
sour and spoil; so he never stores them away until they are
thoroughly dry. Then, of course, they are hay, for hay is nothing
but sun-dried grass cut before it has begun to die. When his hay
is just as dry as it should be, he takes it down and stores it away
in his barns, which are nothing but little caves down in among the
rocks. There he has it for use in winter when there is no green food.

"Little Chief is so nearly the color of the rocks that it takes
sharp eyes to see him when he is sitting still. He has a funny
little squeaking voice, and he uses it a great deal. It is a funny
voice because it is hard to tell just where it comes from. It seems
to come from nowhere in particular. Sometimes he can be heard
squeaking way down in his home under the rocks. Like Johnny Chuck,
he prefers to sleep at night and be abroad during the day. Because
he is so small he must always be on the lookout for enemies. At the
first hint of danger he scampers to safety in among the rocks, and
there he scolds whoever has frightened him. There is no more
loveable little person in all my great family than this little
haymaker of the mountains of the Great West."

"That haymaking is a pretty good idea of Little Chief's," remarked
Peter Rabbit, scratching a long ear with a long hind foot. "I've
a great mind to try it myself."

Everybody laughed right out, for everybody knew just how easy-going
and thriftless Peter was. Peter himself grinned. He couldn't
help it.

"That would be a very good idea, Peter," said Old Mother Nature.
"By the way, there is another haymaker out in those same great
mountains of the Far West."

"Who?" demanded Peter and Johnny Chuck and Happy Jack Squirrel,
all in the same breath.

"Stubtail the Mountain Beaver," declared Peter promptly. "I
suppose Stubtail is his cousin."

Old Mother Nature shook her head. "No," said she. "No. Stubtail
and Paddy are no more closely related than the rest of you. Stubtail
isn't a Beaver at all. His proper name is Sewellel. Sometimes he
is called Showt'l and sometimes the Boomer, and sometimes the
Chehalis, but most folks call him the Mountain Beaver."

"Is it because he looks like Paddy the Beaver?" Striped Chipmunk asked.

"No," replied Old Mother Nature. "He looks more like Jerry Muskrat
than he does like Paddy. He is about Jerry's size and looks very
much as Jerry would if he had no tail."

"Hasn't he any tail at all?" asked Peter.

"Yes, he has a little tail, a little stub of a tail, but it is so
small that to look at him you would think he hadn't any," replied
Old Mother Nature. "He is found out in the same mountains of the
Far West where Whistler and Little Chief live, but instead of
living way up high among the rocks he is at home down in the valleys
where the ground is soft and the trees grow thickly. Stubtail has
no use for rocks. He wants soft, wet ground where he can tunnel
and tunnel to his heart's content. In one thing Stubtail is very
like Yap Yap the Prairie Dog."

"What is that?" asked Johnny Chuck quickly, for, you know, Yap Yap
is Johnny's cousin.

"In his social habits," replied Old Mother Nature. "Stubtail isn't
fond of living alone. He wants company of his own kind. So wherever
you find Stubtail you are likely to find many of his family. They
like to go visiting back and forth. They make little paths between
their homes and all about through the thick ferns, and they keep
these little paths free and clear, so that they may run along them
easily. Some of these little paths lead into long tunnels. These
are made for safety. Usually the ground is so wet that there will
be water running in the bottoms of these little tunnels."

"What kind of a house does Stubtail have?" inquired Johnny
Chuck interestedly.

"A hole in the ground, of course, replied Old Mother Nature. "It
is dug where the ground is drier than where the runways are made.
Mrs. Stubtail makes a nest of dried ferns and close by they build
two or three storehouses, for Stubtail and Mrs. Stubtail are
thrifty people."

"I suppose he fills them with hay, for you said he is a haymaker,"
remarked Happy Jack Squirrel, who is always interested in storehouses.

"Yes," replied Old Mother Nature, "he puts hay in them. He cuts
grasses, ferns, pea-vines and other green plants and carries them
in little bundles to the entrance to his tunnel. There he piles
them on sticks so as to keep them off he damp ground and so that
the air can help dry them out. When they are dry, he takes them
inside and stores them away. He also stores other things. He likes
the roots of ferns. He cuts tender, young twigs from bushes and
stores away some of these. He is fond of bark. In winter he is
quite as active as in summer and tunnels about under the snow.
Then he sometimes has Peter Rabbit's bad habit of killing trees
by gnawing bark all around as high up as he can reach."

"Can he climb trees?" asked Chatterer the Red Squirrel.

"Just about as much as Johnny Chuck can," replied Old Mother Nature.
"Sometimes he climbs up in low bushes or in small, low-branching
trees to cut off tender shoots, but he doesn't do much of this sort
of thing. His home is the ground. He is most active at night, but
where undisturbed, is out more or less during the day. When he wants
to cut off a twig he sits up like a Squirrel and holds the twig in
his hands while he bites it off with his sharp teeth."

"You didn't tell us what color his coat is," said Peter Rabbit.

"I told you he looked very much like Jerry Muskrat," replied Old
Mother Nature. "His coat is brown, much the color of Jerry's, but
his fur is not nearly so soft and fine."

"I suppose he has enemies just as the rest of us little people have,"
said Peter.

"Of course," replied Old Mother Nature. "All little people have
enemies, and most big ones too, for that matter. King Eagle is one
and Yowler the Bob Cat is another. They are always watching for
Stubtail. That is why he digs so many tunnels. He can travel under
the ground then. My goodness, how time flies! Scamper home, all of
you, for I have too much to do to talk any more to-day."



CHAPTER X Prickly Porky and Grubby Gopher

All the way to school the next morning Peter Rabbit wondered who
they would learn about that day. He was so busy wondering that he
was heedless. Peter is apt to be heedless at times. The result
was that as he hopped out of a bramble-tangle just within the edge
of the Green Forest, he all but landed in something worse than the
worst brambles that ever grew. It was only by a wild side jump
that he saved himself. Peter had almost landed among the thousand
little spears of Prickly Porky the Porcupine.

"Gracious!" exclaimed Peter.

"Why don't you look where you are going," grunted Prickly Porky.
Plainly he was rather peevish. "It wouldn't be my fault if you had
a few of my little spears sticking in you this very minute, and it
would serve you right." He waddled along a few steps, then began
talking again. "I don't see why Old Mother Nature sent for me this
morning," he grumbled. "I hate a long walk."

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