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
“While Digger the Badger is a lover of the open country and doesn't
like the Green Forest at all he has a cousin who is found only in
the Green Forest and usually very deep in the Green Forest at that.
This is Glutton the Wolverine, the largest and ugliest member of the
family. None of you have seen him, because he lives almost wholly
in the great forests of the North. He hasn't a single friend that
I know of, but that doesn't trouble him in the least.
“Glutton has several names. He is called 'Carcajou' in the Far
North, and out in the Far West is often called 'Skunkbear.' The
latter name probably is given him because in shape and color he
looks a good deal as though he might be half Skunk and half Bear.
He is about three feet long with a tail six inches long, and is
thickset and heavy. His legs are short and very stout. His hair,
including that on the tail, is long and shaggy. It is
blackish-brown, becoming grayish on the upper part of his head and
cheeks. His feet are black. When he walks he puts his feet flat on the
ground as a Bear does.
“Being so short of leg and heavy of body, he is slow in his movements.
But what he lacks in this respect he makes up in strength and cunning.
You think Reddy Fox and Old Man Coyote are smart, but neither begins
to be as smart as Glutton the Wolverine. He is a great traveler, and
in the Far North where the greater part of the fur of the world is
trapped, he is a pest to the trappers. He will follow a trapper all
day long, keeping just out of sight. No matter how carefully a trapper
hides a trap, Glutton will find it and steal the bait without getting
caught. Sometimes he even tears up the traps and takes them off and
hides them in the woods. If he comes on a trap in which some other
animal has been caught, he will eat the animal. His strength is so
great that often he will tear his way into the cabins of hunters while
they are absent and then eat or destroy all their food. His appetite
is tremendous, and it is because of this that he is called Glutton.
What he cannot eat or take away, he covers with filth so that no
other animal will touch it. He is of ugly disposition and is hated
alike by the animals and by man. His fur is of considerable value,
but he is hunted more for the purpose of getting rid of him than for
his fur. Sometimes when caught in a trap he will pick it up and
carry it for miles.
“Mrs. Glutton has two or three babies in the spring. They live
in a cave, but if a cave cannot be found, they use a hole in the
ground which Mrs. Glutton digs. It is usually well hidden and seldom
has been found by man. Glutton will eat any kind of flesh and seems
not to care whether it be freshly killed or so old that it is decayed.
The only way that hunters can protect their supplies is by covering
them with great logs. Even then Glutton will often tear the logs
apart to get at the supplies. Because of his great cunning, the
Indians think he is possessed of an evil spirit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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