Уильям Лонг (William J. Long)
A Little Brother to the Bear
William J. Long
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
"A fierce battle in the tree-tops"
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 ATHENÆUM 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.