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
“Billy is as awkward-looking as he moves about as Bighorn is graceful,
but he will go where even Bighorn will hesitate to follow. His hoofs
are small and especially planned for walking in safety on smooth rock
and ice-covered ledges. In weight he is about equal to Lightfoot the
Deer, but he doesn't look in the least like him.
“In the first place he has a hump on his shoulders much like the
humps of Thunderfoot the Bison and Longcoat the Musk Ox. Of course
this means that he carries his head low. His face is very long and
from beneath his chin hangs a white beard. From his forehead two
rather short, slim, black horns stand up with a little curve backward.
His coat is white and the hair is long and straight. Under this long
white coat he wears a thick coat of short, woolly, yellowish-white fur
which keeps him warm in the coldest weather. He seldom leaves his
beloved mountain-tops, even in the worst weather of winter, as Bighorn
sometimes does, but finds shelter among the rocks. The result is that
he has practically no enemies save man to fear.
“Often he spends the summer where the snow remains all the year
through and his white coat is a protection from the keenest eyes.
You see, when not moving, he looks in the distance for all the
world like a patch of snow on the rocks.
“Not having a handsome head or wonderful horns he has not been
hunted by man quite so much as has Bighorn, and therefore is not so
alert and wary. Both he and Bighorn are more easily approached from
above than from below, because they do not expect danger from above
and so do not keep so sharp a watch in that direction. The young
are sometimes taken by King Eagle, but otherwise Billy Goat's family
has little to fear from enemies, always excepting the hunter with
his terrible gun.
“I have now told you of the members of the cattle and Sheep family,
what they look like and where they live and how. There is still
one more member of the order Ungulata and this one is in a way
related to another member of Farmer Brown's barnyard. I will leave
you to guess which one. What is it, Peter?”
“If you please, in just what part of the Far West are the mountains
where Billy Goat lives?” replied Peter.
“Chiefly in the northern part,” replied Old Mother Nature. “In the
Northwest these mountains are very close to the ocean and Billy
does not appear to mind in the least the fogs that roll in, and
seems to enjoy the salt air. Sometimes there he comes down almost
to the shore. Are there any more questions?”
There were none, so school was dismissed for the day. Peter didn't
go straight home. Instead he went up to the Old Pasture for another
look at the old ram there and tried to picture to himself just what
Bighorn must look like. Especially he looked at the hoofs of the
old ram.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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