The Burgess Animal Book for ChildrenBurgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
General
The Burgess Animal Book for Children
Burgess, Thornton W. (Thornton Waldo)
Animal behavior -- Juvenile literature; Zoology -- Juvenile literature
“I told you yesterday that Buster Bear has one cousin beside whom
he would look small. This is Bigfoot the Alaska or Great Brown
Bear, who lives in the extreme northwest part of the continent.
Even Silvertip would look small beside him. He is a giant, the
largest flesh-eating animal in all the great world. His coat is
dark brown. When he stands up on his hind legs, he is almost half
again as tall as a tall man. He stands very high at the shoulders
and his head is very large. Like the other members of the Bear
family, he eats all sorts of things. He hunts for Mice and other
small animals, digs up roots, stuffs himself with berries, and at
times grazes on a kind of wild grass, just as Cattle might do. He
is a great fish eater, for fish are very plentiful in the streams
in the country where he lives. Big as he is, he has learned to
fear man just as Silvertip has. Occasionally when surprised he
has been known to attack man and kill him, but as a rule he will
run at the first hint of man's approach.
“The last of the Bear cousins is Snow King the Polar Bear. Snow
King is king of the Frozen North. He lives in the region of snow
and ice, and his coat is all white. He also is a big Bear, and of
somewhat different shape from his cousins. He is longer, and has
a much longer neck and a long head. His ears are rather small and
close to his head. Snow King lives the year round where it would
seem that no animal could live, and he manages to live well.
Though his home is in the coldest part of the Great World, he does
not mind the cold at all.
“More than any other member of the Bear family, Snow King is a
flesh eater. This is because only in certain places, and then only
for a few weeks in midsummer, is there any plant life. He is a
great fisherman, and fish furnish him a great deal of his food. In
that far northern country are great numbers of animals who live in
the ocean, but come ashore to rest and bask in the sun, and to have
their babies there. They are Seals, Sea Lions and Walruses. I will
tell you about them later. On these Snow King depends for much of
his food. He is himself a wonderful swimmer, and often swims far
out in the icy water.
“Up there there are great fields of floating ice, and Snow King
swims from one to another in search of Seals, for they often
climb out on these ice fields, just as they do on shore.
Sometimes Mrs. Bear takes her cubs for long swims. When they
become tired, one will climb on her back, and the other will
seize her tail, so she will carry one and tow the other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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