. The hunter and the trapper in North America; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest . lawn. Tlielascal, with the help of his paws, had extracted from ahole in the trunk some young woodpeckeis, and gi-eedilydevoured them, while the distracted mother was hoveringabove his head. He was also very fond of fresh-watermussels, and was pai-ticularly clever in hunting for themin the mud. Tortoise eggs he considered a gi*eat treat;his instinct for tracing the creatures humid track wassomething wonderful. Once—O massa ! see what an in-telligent vermin he was !—I found him lying flat on hisbelly cl
. The hunter and the trapper in North America; or, Romantic adventures in field and forest . lawn. Tlielascal, with the help of his paws, had extracted from ahole in the trunk some young woodpeckeis, and gi-eedilydevoured them, while the distracted mother was hoveringabove his head. He was also very fond of fresh-watermussels, and was pai-ticularly clever in hunting for themin the mud. Tortoise eggs he considered a gi*eat treat;his instinct for tracing the creatures humid track wassomething wonderful. Once—O massa ! see what an in-telligent vermin he was !—I found him lying flat on hisbelly close to the edge of a pond, near which he and Ihad passed in our wanderings on the previous day; hehad concealed himself in a heap of reeds, and seemedto sleep like a maimot. A flock of wild ducks floatedupon the water, and approached the shoi-e without anymistrust. Suddenly my racoon took a leap and ajump, I might almost say a flight, and pounced uponone of the largest and fattest members of the wingedtroop. The onlv fault I had to find with him was that he did 92 AX KVIL PROPENSITY,. II K roLNlJKU UlON ONE t)K TllK LAKOEST OF THE WINGED TROOP. not respect tlie inliabitants of our poultry-yard. Tn tliismatter his conduct was scarcely exeniplaiy. He only stolethe eggs—when he got the chance. Besides the daintiesto which he thus helped himself occasionally, my racoonfed upon maize boiled in water, over which I pouredsome fresh milk when I wished to give him a I the poor beast died the victim of his gluttony. STANDING AT HAY. 93 He swallowed a nibhit whole, one fine moming—yes,hail and flesh and bones—like a boa constrictor ! And thvis speaking, Master Dolly shed a tear of regret,while his vast mouth gave utterance to a succession ofyah, yah, yahs ! followed by a couple of jyshou—pshous!stereotyped in the mouth of every negro who laughs. I shall finish this chapter—too long ah-eady, I fear, forthe comfoit of my readers—by i-elating three incidents ofa ra
Size: 1441px × 1734px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectg, booksubjecthunting
