Colorado -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Outdoor books; Rocky Mountain National Park (Colo.) -- History; Rocky Mountains
In slide rock and in bouldery moraines up as high as thirteen thousand
feet, one finds the pika, or cony. Almost nothing is known of his
domestic life. Apparently he does not hibernate, for on sunny days he
may be seen the year round. Like the beaver he each autumn lays up
supplies for winter. Hay is his harvest. This hay is frequently placed
in conical piles in the shelter of shelving rocks. These piles are
sometimes two feet in diameter. His haymaking is done with much hurry.
After quickly biting off a number of plants or grasses, he commonly
seizes these by their ends and simply scampers for the harvest pile.
Quickly thrusting them in, he hurries away for more. His ways are
decidedly in contrast to the beaver's deliberate movements. When he is
sunning himself, one may, by moving slowly, approach within a few
feet. He has a squeaky whistle and a birdlike call, each of which it
is difficult to describe. He is a tailless little fellow, and has
round ratlike ears; is dark gray above and whitish beneath. In
appearance he reminds one of a small guinea-pig, or a young rabbit.
Up in this region, the most skyward of life zones, nature, as
everywhere, is red in tooth and claw. There are strength and cunning,
victor and vanquished, pursuit and death. One day, while watching a
beetle, I saw a deadly attack. For more than an hour the beetle had
been doing nothing except turn this way and then that without getting
two inches from the grass-edge on the top of a stone. Suddenly a black
bit darted past my face, struck the beetle, and knocked him over. It
was a wasp, and for a few seconds these two warriors clinched, and
fought with all their strength, cunning, and weapons. While locked in
deadly struggle, they fell over a cliff that was twelve inches high;
the fall broke their hold; this was instantly renewed, but presently
they ceased to struggle, with the wasp victor.
The weasel is the white wolf among the small people of the heights. In
winter his pure white fur allows him to slip almost unsuspected
through the snow. He preys upon the cony and the birds of the alpine
zone. Like the mountain lion and some human hunters, he does wanton
killing just for amusement. He is bloodthirsty, cunning, and even
bold. Many times, within a few feet, he has glared fiendishly at me,
seeming almost determined to attack; his long, low-geared body and
sinister and snaky eyes make him a mean object to look upon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account