I Love Animal Stories. Aesop

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      YAP YAP THE PRAIRIE DOG. A social little Marmot who lives on the prairies of the West.

      “Yap Yap loves to visit his neighbors and to have them visit him. They are lively little people and do a great deal of talking among themselves. The instant one of them sees an enemy he gives a signal. Then every Prairie Dog scampers for his own hole and dives in head first. Almost at once he pops his head out again to see what the danger may be.”

      “How can he do that without going clear to the bottom to turn around?” demanded Peter.

      “I wondered if any of you would think of that question,” chuckled Old Mother Nature. “Just a little way down from the entrance Yap Yap digs a little room at one side of his tunnel. All he has to do is to scramble into that, turn around and then pop his head out. As I said before, his tunnel goes down very deep; then it turns and goes almost equally far underground. Down there he has a nice little bedroom. Sometimes he has more than one.”

      “If it is so dry out where he lives, how does he get water to drink?” asked Happy Jack.

      “He doesn't have to drink,” replied Old Mother Nature. “Some folks think that he digs down until he finds water way down underneath, but this isn't so. He doesn't have to have water. He gets all the moisture he needs from the green things he eats.”

      “I suppose, like the rest of us, he has lots of enemies?” said Peter.

      Old Mother Nature nodded. “Of course,” said she. “Old Man Coyote and Reddy Fox are very fond of Prairie Dog. So are members of the Hawk family. Then in some places there is a cousin of Shadow the Weasel called the Black-footed Ferret. He is to be feared most of all because he can follow Yap Yap down into his hole. There is a cousin of Hooty the Owl called the Burrowing Owl because it builds its home in a hole in the ground. You are likely to find many Burrowing Owls living in Prairie Dog villages. Also you are apt to find Buzztail the Rattlesnake there.

      “A lot of people believe that Yap Yap, Buzztail and the little Burrowing Owl are the best of friends and often live together in the same hole. This isn't so at all. Buzztail is very fond of young Prairie Dog and so is the Burrowing Owl. Rather than dig a hole for himself the Owl will sometimes take possession of one of Yap Yap's deserted holes. If he should make a mistake and enter a hole in which Yap Yap was at home, the chances are that Yap Yap would kill the Owl for he knows that the Owl is an enemy. Buzztail the Rattlesnake also makes use of Prairie Dog holes, but it is safe to say that if there are any Prairie Dog babies down there they never live to see what the outside world is like. So Buzztail and the Burrowing Owl are really enemies instead of friends of Yap Yap, the Prairie Dog.”

      “Why is he called a Dog?” asked Peter.

      Old Mother Nature laughed right out. “Goodness knows,” said she. “He doesn't look like a Dog and he doesn't act like a Dog, so why people should call him a Dog I don't know, unless it is because of his habit of barking, and even his bark isn't at all like a Dog's—not nearly so much so as the bark of Reddy Fox. Now I guess this will do for to-day. Haven't you little folks had enough of school?”

      “No,” cried Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare and Happy Jack and Chatterer the Red Squirrel and Striped Chipmunk and Johnny Chuck. “We want to know about the rest of the members of the order of Rodents or Gnawers,” added Peter. “Of course in a way they are sort of related to us and we want to know about them.”

      Old Mother Nature laughed good-naturedly. “All right,” said she, “come again to-morrow morning and we'll see what more we can learn.”

      Chapter IX

       Two Queer Little Haymakers

       Table of Contents

      There is nothing like a little knowledge to make one want more. Johnny Chuck, who had gone to school only because Old Mother Nature had sent for him, had become as full of curiosity as Peter Rabbit. The discovery that he had a big, handsome cousin, Whistler the Marmot, living in the mountains of the Far West, had given Johnny something to think about. It seemed to Johnny such a queer place for a member of his family to live that he wanted to know more about it. So Johnny had a question all ready when Old Mother Nature called school to order the next morning.

      “If you please, Mother Nature,” said he, “does my cousin, Whistler, have any neighbors up among those rocks where he lives?”

      “He certainly does,” replied Old Mother Nature, nodding her head. “He has for a near neighbor one of the quaintest and most interesting little members of the big order to which you all belong. And that order is what?” she asked abruptly.

      “The order of Rodents,” replied Peter Rabbit promptly.

      “Right, Peter,” replied Old Mother Nature, smiling at Peter. “I asked that just to see if you really are learning. I wanted to make sure that I am not wasting my time with you little folks. Now this little neighbor of Whistler is Little Chief Hare.”

      Instantly Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare pricked up their long ears and became more interested than ever, if that were possible. “I thought you had told us all about our family,” cried Jumper, “but you didn't mention Little Chief.”

      “No,” said Old Mother Nature, “I didn't, and the reason I didn't was because Little Chief isn't a member of your family. He is called Little Chief Hare, but he isn't a Hare at all, although he looks much like a small Rabbit with short hind legs and rounded ears. He has a family all to himself and should be called a Pika. Some folks do call him that, but more call him a Cony, and some call him the Crying Hare. This is because he uses his voice a great deal, which is something no member of the Hare family does. In size he is just about as big as one of your half-grown babies, Peter, so, you see, he really is a very little fellow. His coat is grayish-brown. His ears are of good size, but instead of being long, are round. He has small bright eyes. His legs are short, his hind legs being very little longer than his front ones. He has hair on the soles of his feet just like the members of the hare family.”

      LITTLE CHIEF THE PIKA. Also called Cony and Little Chief Hare.

      “What about his tail?” piped up Peter Rabbit. You know Peter is very much interested in tails.

      Old Mother Nature smiled. “He is worse off than you, Peter,” said she, “for he hasn't any at all. That is, he hasn't any that can be seen. He lives way up among the rocks of the great mountains above where the trees grow and often is a very near neighbor to Whistler.”

      “I suppose that means that he makes his home down in under rocks, the same as Whistler does,” spoke up Johnny Chuck.

      “Right,” СКАЧАТЬ