. Wild animals I have known : and 200 drawings . RaggylugThe Story of aCottontail Rabbit Raggylug The Story of a Cottontail Rabbit RAGGYLUG, or Rag, was the name of a youngcottontail rabbit. It was given him from historn and ragged ear, a life-mark that he gotin his first adventure. He lived with his motherin Olifants swamp, where I made their acquaint-ance and gathered, in a hundred different ways,the little bits of proof and scraps of truth that atlength enabled me to write this history. Those who do not know the animals wellmay think I have humanized them, but thosewho have lived so near th
. Wild animals I have known : and 200 drawings . RaggylugThe Story of aCottontail Rabbit Raggylug The Story of a Cottontail Rabbit RAGGYLUG, or Rag, was the name of a youngcottontail rabbit. It was given him from historn and ragged ear, a life-mark that he gotin his first adventure. He lived with his motherin Olifants swamp, where I made their acquaint-ance and gathered, in a hundred different ways,the little bits of proof and scraps of truth that atlength enabled me to write this history. Those who do not know the animals wellmay think I have humanized them, but thosewho have lived so near them as to know some-what of their ways and their minds will notthink so. Truly rabbits have no speech as we under-stand it, but they have a way of conveying ideasby a system of sounds, signs, scents, whisker- 93 Raggylug touches, movements, and example that answersthe purpose of speech; and it must be remem-bered that though in telling this story I free-ly translate from rabbit into English, / repeatnothing that they did not The rank swamp grass bent over and con-cealed the snug nest where Raggylugs motherhad hidden him. She had partly covered himwith some of the bedding, and, as always, herlast warning was to lay low and say nothing,whatever happens. Though tucked in bed,he was wide awake and his bright eyes were 94 taking in that part of his little green world thatwas straight above. A bluejay and a red-squirrel, two notorious thieves, were loudly be-rating each other for stealing, and at one timeRags home bush was the centre of their fight;a yellow warbler caught a blue butterfly but sixinches from his nose, and a scarlet and blackladybug, serenely waving her knobbed feelers,took a long walk up one grassblade, downanother, and across the nest and over Ragsface—and yet he never moved nor even winked. After awhile he heard a strange rustling ofthe leaves in the near thicket. It was an odd,continuous sound, and though it went this wayand that way and came ever nearer, th
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, bookpublishe, booksubjectanimals
