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
“Like so many others he has a hard time in winter, particularly
when the snows are deep. Then he and Mrs. Lightfoot and their
children live in what is called a yard. Of course it isn't really
a yard such as Farmer Brown has. It is simply a place where they
keep the snow trodden down in paths which cross and cross, and is
made where there is shelter and food. The food is chiefly twigs
and leaves of evergreen trees. As the snow gets deeper and deeper
they become prisoners in the yard until spring comes to melt the
snow and set them free.
“Lightfoot depends for safety more on his nose and ears than on his
eyes. His sense of smell is wonderful, and when he is moving about
he usually goes up wind; that is, in the direction from which the
wind is blowing. This is so that it will bring to him the scent
of any enemy that may be ahead of him. He is very clever and
cunning. Often before lying down to rest he goes back a short
distance to a point where he can watch his trail, so that if any
one is following it he will have warning.
“His greatest enemy is the hunter with his terrible gun. How any
one can look into those great soft eyes of Lightfoot and then even
think of trying to kill him is more than I can understand. Dogs
are his next worst enemies when he lives near the homes of men.
When he lives where Wolves, Panthers and Bears are found, he has
to be always on the watch for them. Tufty the Lynx is ever on the
watch for Lightfoot's babies.
“The White-tailed Deer is the most widely distributed of all the
Deer family. He is found from the Sunny South to the great forests
of the North--everywhere but in the vast open plains of the middle
of this great country. That is, he used to be. In many places
he has been so hunted by man that he has disappeared. When he
lives in the Sunny South he never grows to be as big as when he
lives in the North.
“In the great mountains of the Far West lives a cousin, Blacktail,
also called Columbian Blacktailed Deer, and another cousin, Forkhorn
the Mule Deer. Blacktail is nearly the size of Lightfoot. He is not
quite so graceful, his ears are larger, being much like those of
Forkhorn the Mule Deer, to whom he is closely related, and his tail
is wholly black on the upper surface. It is from this he gets his
name. His antlers vary, sometimes being much like those of Lightfoot
and again like those of Forkhorn. He is a lover of dense forests and
is not widely distributed. He is not nearly so smart as Lightfoot in
outwitting hunters.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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