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
“Bugler's crowning glory are his antlers. They are very large and
wide-spreading, sweeping backward and upward, the long prongs, or
tines, curving upward from the front instead of from the back, as
in the case of Lightfoot's antlers. Above each eye is a long sharp
prong. So big are these antlers that Bugler looks almost as if
he were carrying a small, bare tree on his head.
“Big as these antlers are, they are grown in a few months for
Bugler is like his small cousins in that he loses his antlers at
the end of every winter and must grow a new pair. While they are
growing, he hides in the wildest places he can find, high up on
the mountains. Mrs. Bugler is at that time down in a valley with
her baby or babies. Usually she has one, but sometimes twins.
She has no antlers.
“In the fall, when his antlers have hardened, Bugler moves down
to join his family. The bigger and stronger he is, the bigger his
family is, for he has a number of wives and they all live together
in a herd or band of which Bugler is lord and master. He is ready
and eager to fight for them, and terrible battles take place when
another disputes his leadership. At this season he has a habit of
stretching his neck out and emitting a far-reaching trumpet-like
sound from which he gets the name of Bugler. It is a warning that
he is ready to fight.
“When the snows of winter come, many families get together and form
great bands. Then they move down from the mountains in search of
shelter and food. When a winter is very bad, many starve to death,
for man has fenced in and made into farms much of the land where
the elk once found ample food for winter.
“But big as is Bugler the Elk, there is a cousin who is bigger, the
biggest of all the Deer family. It is Flathorns the Moose. As you
must guess by his name he is a member of the flat-horned branch of
the family. His antlers spread widely and are flattened instead
of being round. From the edges of the flattened part many sharp
points spring out.
“Flathorns, wearing his crown of great spreading antlers, is a
noble appearing animal because of his great size, but when his
antlers have dropped he is a homely fellow. Mrs. Flathorns, who
has no antlers, is very homely. As I have said, Flathorns is the
biggest member of the Deer family. He is quite as big as Farmer
Brown's Horse and stands much higher at the shoulders. Indeed, his
shoulders are so high that he has a decided hump there, for they are
well above the line of his back. His neck is very short, large and
thick, and his head is not at all like the heads of other members
of the Deer family. Instead of the narrow, pointed face of other
members of the Deer family, he has a broad, long face, rather more
like that of a Horse. Towards the nose it humps up, and the great
thick upper lip overhangs the lower one. His nose is very broad,
and for his size his eyes are small. His ears are large.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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