Wild Animals I Have Known

er care. He was unusually quick and bright as well as strong, a

by day she worked to train him; little by little she taught him, putting into his mind hundreds of ideas that her own

was getting the same kind of fodder. Still copying her, he learned to comb his ears with his claws and to dress his coat and to bite the burrs out of his vest and socks. He learned, too, that nothing b

six feet from the earth is not heard at twenty yards will, near the ground, be heard at least one hundred yards. Rabbits have very keen hearing, and so might hear this same thump at two hundred yards, and that would

the thumping signal for 'come.' Rag set out at a run to the place but could not find Molly. He thumped, but got no reply. Setting carefully about his search he found her foot-scent and, following this strange guide, that the beasts all know so well and man does no

arnt all the principal tricks by which a rabbit lives an

e knew just how to play 'barb-wire,' which is a new trick of the brilliant order; he had made a special study of 'sand,' which burns up all scent, and was deeply versed in 'change-off,' 'fence,' an

r hawks, owls, foxes, hounds, curs, minks, weasels, cats, skunks, coons, and-men, each ha

a marplot, and a thief all the time, but nothing escapes him. He wouldn't mind harming us, but he cannot, thanks to the briers, and his enemies are ours, so it is well to heed him. If the woodpe

legs. It was long before Rag ventured to play it, but as

ting him catch you. Then keeping just one hop ahead, you lead him at a long slant full tilt into a breast-high barb-wire. I've seen many

se rabbit, but soon or late is a sure death-trap to a fool. A young rabbit always thinks of it first, an old rabbit never tries it till all oth

fine days the Cottontails took their sun-baths. They stretched out among the fragrant pine needles and winter-green in odd cat-like positions, and turned slowly over a

roots wriggled out above the yellow sand-bank like dragons, and under

waited to quarrel with Olifant's dog instead of going in so that Mo

ght have enjoyed greater longevity, for he imagined-that even man with a gun would fly from him. Instead of keepi

t as a last retreat. It also was the work of a woodchuck, a well-meaning friendly neighbor, but a harebrained y

t hide was raised on stolen feed that the te

ll green, and had the great advantage of being open at both ends. This had long been the residence of one Lotor, a solitary old coon whose ostensible calling was frog-hunting, and who, like the monks of old, was supposed to abstain from all flesh food. But it was