_A Little Brother To The Bear_
_William J. Long_
[Illustration: BOOKS BY _WILLIAM-J-LONG_ _A Little Brother to the Bear_ _FOLLOWING THE DEER_ SCHOOL OF THE WOODS BEASTS OF THE FIELD FOWLS OF THE AIR WAYS OF WOOD FOLK WOOD FOLK AT SCHOOL WILDERNESS WAYS SECRETS OF THE WOODS]
_A Little Brother to the Bear_
[Illustration: "A fierce battle in the tree-tops"]
[Illustration: _A Little Brother to the Bear and other Animal Studies_
_BY William J Long_
_Author of_ _School of the Woods_ _Beasts of the Field_ _Fowls of the Air_ _Wood Folk Series_ _etc._
_Illustrated by Charles Copeland_
_Boston U.S.A. and London_
_GINN AND COMPANY THE ATHENAEUM PRESS 1903_]
ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL
COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY WILLIAM J. LONG
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_To Lois, who likes Bears, I dedicate this book of the Bear and his little brother._
_PREFACE_
_The object of this little book, so far as it has an object beyond that of sharing a simple pleasure of mine with others, will be found in the first chapter, entitled "The Point of View"; and the title will be explained in the chapter on "A Little Brother to the Bear" that follows._
_All the sketches here are reproduced from my own note-books largely, or from my own memory, and the observations cover a period of some thirty years,--from the time when I first began to prowl about the home woods with a child's wonder and delight to my last hard winter trip into the Canadian wilderness. Some of the chapters, like those of the Woodcock and the Coon, represent the characteristics of scores of animals and birds of the same species; others, like those of the Bear and Eider-Duck in "Animal Surgery," represent the acute intelligence of certain individual animals that nature seems to have lifted enormously above the level of their fellows; and in a single case--that of the Toad--I have, for the story's sake, gathered into one creature the habits of four or five of these humble little helpers of ours that I have watched at different times and in different places._
_The queer names herein used for beasts and birds are those given by the Milicete Indians, and represent usually some sound or suggestion of the creatures themselves. Except where it is plainly stated otherwise, all the incidents and observations have passed under my own eyes and have been confirmed later by other observers. In the records, while holding closely to the facts, I have simply tried to make all these animals as interesting to the reader as they were to me when I discovered them._
_WM. J. LONG._
_Stamford, September, 1903._
CONTENTS
THE POINT OF VIEW
A LITTLE BROTHER TO THE BEAR
WHITOOWEEK THE HERMIT
A WOODCOCK GENIUS
WHEN UPWEEKIS GOES HUNTING
K'DUNK THE FAT ONE
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Little Brother to the Bear and other Animal Stor
- 2: For every fact is also a revelation
- 3: And habit were seen for centuries
- 4: And have recorded only the rare observations
- 5: Fern covered rocks of these ledges one of the shy children
- 6: The face of Mooweesuk the coon
- 7: While Musquash is gone away after more clams
- 8: Therefore are the woodpeckers all safe from him
- 9: And souse it thoroughly before eating
- 10: And the wilderness coon knows little about them
- 11: Sometimes from this den another coon goes out with him
- 12: The big coon lay down quietly to die
- 13: WHITOOWEEK THE HERMIT Whitooweek
- 14: In stealing through the maple woods
- 15: Natty did not laugh at my description
- 16: She was hunting for earthworms
- 17: When you find a brood of young woodcock without the mother
- 18: Taking the chick with her on her back
- 19: Five woodcock flushed at the same moment
- 20: Clucking and twittering ecstatically
- 21: Unlike the plovers that come by hundreds
- 22: The woodcock use it for a resting place only by day
- 23: But formerly it was good woodcock ground
- 24: That the woodcock had a broken leg
- 25: Another and another lynx glided out
- 26: The four other lynxes were her cubs
- 27: And caribou are the most inquisitive creatures
- 28: Shot over the rock Upweekis is a stupid fellow
- 29: Finding the soft warm earth of the portulaca bed
- 30: Waging his silent warfare against the trowel
- 31: The caterpillar was a hairy fellow
- 32: Every squash bug that stirred had disappeared
- 33: I saw the first lightning bug glowing in the grass
- 34: That the thin sod covered a hollow underneath
- 35: K'dunk could not budge the flagstones
- 36: K'dunk was resting with a paw on either flagstone
- 37: And Mooween had followed it about
- 38: If Mooween had carried anything outside
- 39: Whether Mooween were at home or not
- 40: Yet the kingfisher rushed upon them
- 41: The old birds had caught a score of minnows
- 42: Koskomenos is a solitary fellow
- 43: That is because he is a slinking
- 44: His eyes fixed with unblinking stare on the deep pool below
- 45: Tells me that both wildcat and lynx
- 46: Had a similar experience with a Canada lynx
- 47: Trout and landing net were gone
- 48: And especially the cures for rheumatism
- 49: Partly to reduce the inflammation and partly
- 50: But the old musquash avoided the path
- 51: And that two of them had covered the wounds thickly with gum
- 52: And chip the mussels from the ledges
- 53: As he glides over the waterways in his canoe
- 54: Does and fawns and young spike bucks
- 55: And the lazy buck was debating
- 56: To see what the deer and fawns would do
- 57: A three year old with promising antlers
- 58: In front of the dark bulk two great antlers
- 59: There was always a duck on each of these tussocks
- 60: Formerly caribou might be found on these same waterways
- 61: Glossary of Indian Names Cheokhes