Bobtail

“ Monkey is a queer-looking fellow, but he is just as good as they make them," replied Bobtail, as he leaped upon the deck of the Skylark.
The gentlemen were delighted with the yacht, and explored her above and below, while the skipper and his crew were hoisting the mainsail and weighing the anchor. In a few moments Bobtail took his place at the helm; the fresh breeze struck the mainsail as the skipper hauled in the sheet, and the Skylark heeled over, gathered headway, and went off like an arrow shot from a bow. ”

“ The Bobtail in question was lent by me, and is the sister of a well known "Champion" belonging to one of the most successful exhibitors and spirited buyers of Sheep dogs in the United Kingdom. The points of this breed, as show specimens, are:—Head square and large, eyes rather small and dark, but wall or marble eyes are considered an advantage when obtainable, particularly [Pg 178] in light coloured specimens, body should be large and powerful, without coarseness, sloping rather to front ”

“ While it was warming up, he went on deck again, for he heard the dip of a pair of oars near the yacht.
"Hullo, Monkey!" he shouted, as he recognized the occupant of a dilapidated old dory, who was taking a leisurely survey of the trim yacht. [Pg 85]
"Hullo, Bob! Is that you?" replied the person in the boat, who was a boy of about the age of Little Bobtail, though not half so handsome.
Robert had called him "Monkey," and it was not difficult to determine where he had obtained his sobriquet, for, looking at the youth, Darwinism seemed to be made easy, without distorting either facts or logic. ”

“ He lost hold of the string, and the kite flew away up in the air.
One of the branches of the oak tree caught the string and held the kite fast.
"Oh, oh!" whistled North Wind. "Now it is my turn to fly the kite."
Bobtail did not say a word.
He picked himself out of the big pile of leaves, and shook his long ears back and forth.
"I don't like to fly kites," he said. "Let's go home and take a nap."
So the three little rabbits hopped back along the path through the woods.
North Wind puffed out his cheeks.
"See me fly the kite," he called to the rabbits. ”

“ I am very pleased to say, that this breed, which had been much neglected on account of the influx of Scotch Collies, and was even in danger of becoming almost extinct, has been very much taken up the last few years, and even in London you now often see very decent specimens accompanying fashionable ladies and carriages. It may not be generally known, but I have proved it by actual practice with a great many of my own specimens, that a "Bobtail" is a capital dog to follow carriage, trap, or a rider on horseback. ”

“ The bobcat seldom climbed the ledge to its den, but would more often mount a tall tree, from where it readily leaped to the flat rock. The cat, having clawed itself up the tree, as usual, raised itself, clinging to a dead branch, and gave forth a long, terrific yell of baffled rage as it faced the camp-fire, which flamed up between it and its den, for when it had left the ledge for the swamp, back of that fire, safe in the den were the bobcat’s family. It dare not leap over the glowing flames; still, unwilling to forsake its mate and kittens, it held its position upon the tree. ”

“ For, to tell the truth, the bobcat had only been interested in its little family all the while, and not in the boys at all, and so now with no thought but to follow its mate, whose appealing call had come to it from below, and anxious to get away as far as possible from the bewildering, hateful glare of the flames, which it hated, the wild creature soon caught the welcome, wild scent of the mother cat, and loped off into the dark silence of the night, leaving the two boys alone in safe, undisturbed possession of the bobcat’s den. ”

“ Other birds may like to travel alone, but when jolly Mr. Bobolink and his quiet little wife come from the South, where they have spent the winter, they come with a large party of friends. When South, they eat so much rice that the people call them Rice Birds. When they come North, they enjoy eating wheat, barley, oats and insects.
Mr. and Mrs. Bobolink build their simple little nest of grasses in some field. It is hard to find on the ground, for it looks just like dry grass. Mrs. Bobolink wears a dull dress, so she cannot be seen when she is sitting on the precious eggs. ”

“ On its wild ranges the bobcat feeds to a large extent upon rabbits and other injurious rodents, but it preys also upon such valuable forms of wild life as antelope, deer, and other game animals, especially the fawns, and on wild turkeys, quail, and other ground-nesting birds. With human occupation of its former haunts, it finds in the young of domestic livestock very satisfactory substitutes for its ordinary fare in the wild. ”

“ Dearly as the bobolink loves his brown mate in the nest, the - 20 - moist maze beneath the grass culms where he dines, and his swaying perch on the ferns that feather the meadow's edge, he, too, feels this upward impulse within him too strong to resist and continually flutters skyward, quivering with the joy of June and setting the air from hill to hill a-bubble with his song. ”

“ Bobbsey.
"No," announced Tom, who had been looking at the net, "this ain't for fishes."
"What is it for then?" asked Bert.
"It's for snarin' birds. I've seen 'em before. Men spread the nets out on the grass, and over bushes near where the birds come to feed, and when they try to fly they get caught and tangled in the meshes. I guess this net ain't been here very long, for there ain't any birds caught in it." ”

“ In flooding sunlight the woodlands basked and steamed, and a great stillness brooded over all the wilderness. Long before any sound audible to human ears disturbed the noonday hush, a bobcat sunning on a log in a glade to which no trail led, pricked ears, rose, glanced over-shoulder with a snarl, and—of a sudden—was no more there.
Perhaps two minutes later a succession of remote crashings began to be heard, the sound made by some heavy body forcing a way through the underbrush. Soon a man broke into the clearing and reeled to a seat on the log, shuddering uncontrollably in all his limbs. ”

“ But as the harvest ripens beneath the long, hot days, the melody gradually ceases. The young are out of the nest and must be cared for, and the moulting season is at hand. After the Cricket has commenced to drone his monotonous refrain beneath your window, you will not, till another season, hear the Wood-Thrush in all his matchless eloquence. The Bobolink has become careworn and fretful, and blurts out snatches of his song between his scolding and upbraiding, as you approach the vicinity of his nest, oscillating between anxiety for his brood and solicitude for his musical reputation. ”

“ Grouse also are taken, and on forays above treeline the bobcat may feed upon ptarmigan. It lives in dens in the rocks and sometimes in a hollow tree. Like the snowshoe rabbit upon which it preys, the bobcat has natural “snowshoes”—its feet are expanded in winter by long hairs, which help support the animal on the snow. ”

“ Bobolink must now set themselves to the serious business of making a nest, and rearing a family. They choose a good nest place, and begin to build in a great hurry. Mrs. Bobolink is not so gayly dressed as her mate. She is brown, with a little dull yellow in her plumage.
Mr. Bobolink ends his wildest songs when the little birds come from the shells. Their mouths are always wide open, crying for food. Mr. Bobolink is very busy feeding his children. He flies back and forth all day long, bringing insects to his nursery. ”

“ I never fish with more than one fly. Some fishermen use two, and even three, in addition to the end fly or stretcher. Those additional flies are called bob-flies. My opinion is, that one fly is sufficient, and that more are inconvenient, more difficult to manage, and cause a greater disturbance of the water, without any countervailing advantage. With bob-flies you may sometimes hook two fish at once, but they are generally very small under such circumstances. ”

“ Bobolink finds a little hollow in the ground where the roots grow, and rounds up a nest from the grass stalks with finer grass tops inside. Then she so arranges the weeds and stems above her home that there is no trace of a break in the meadow; and when she leaves the nest she never goes boldly out by the front door or bangs it behind her, but steals off through a by-path in the grass. When she flies out of shelter at last, she has already run a good way off, so that, instead of telling the watcher where her home is, she tells him exactly where it is not. ”

“ The luck of hooking two good fish at the same time rarely happens; and if it should happen, you would probably lose one or both of them, and some of your tackle into the bargain. Still, if you prefer fishing with two or more flies, the first bob-fly should be about three feet from the stretcher, and the second about five feet. More than two bob-flies I consider ridiculous, as well as prejudicial. The bob-fly may be attached, either by bending the tail line into a loop, thus
and putting on the bob-fly through the loop as you would put on the stretcher ”

“ He had been some distance ahead of the animal, and when it ran up to the edge of the clearing Bert had several snowballs ready.
“Come on now! See how you like that!” cried the boy. He threw one snowball “bullet,” but he was so excited that it went high over the head of the bobcat. The next one struck in the snow at the feet of the animal. But the third one hit it right on the nose!
“Good shot!” cried Bert.
The wildcat uttered a snarl and a growl, and 212 stopped for a moment. Perhaps it had never before chased anyone who threw snowballs. ”

“ The rich, joyful chee-e-e-e from the glossy blackbirds poised on the top of a dead weed or slender willow, where they spread their wings so as to show to the best advantage their brilliant patches of red and yellow, mingled with the clearer, sweeter call of Bob-o-link, Bob-o-link from the bright bits of color swaying and fluttering at the very tip of the canebreaks.
"See that bobolink that just lit on that sunflower stalk! Believe I'll see if I can hit him. Too bad to take nothing home," said Hal. ”

“ If I were a bird, in building my nest I should follow the example of the bobolink, placing it in the midst of a broad meadow, where there was no spear of grass, or flower or growth unlike another to mark its site. I judge that the bobolink escapes the dangers to which I have adverted as few or no other birds do. Unless the mowers come along at an earlier date than she has anticipated, that is, before July lst, or a skunk goes nosing through the grass, which is unusual, she is as safe as bird well can be in the great open of nature. ”

“ Fires are lighted by night to scare them, for the birds travel both night and day. The Bobolinks do not stop for all this noise, though of course a great many are shot, ending their lives inside a pot-pie, or being roasted in rows of six on a skewer. But the rest fly on when they are ready, leaving the United States behind them, and go through Florida to Brazil and the West Indies.
"In spring, on the northward journey, the rice-fields suffer again. The males are jolly minstrels once more, all black, white, and buff, hurrying home to their nesting grounds. ”

“ When you come upon the sitting bird, she will almost let you touch her rather than to start up before you, and thus betray her secret. The bobolink begins to scold and to circle about you as soon as you enter the meadow where his nest is so well hidden. He does not wait to show his anxiety till you are almost upon it. By no action of his can you get a clew as to its exact whereabouts.
The song sparrow nearly always builds upon the ground, but my little neighbor of last July laid the foundations of her domicile a foot or more above the soil. ”

“ The Wildcat of Europe, and of literature, is a creature of almost unparalleled ferocity. Our own Wildcat is three times as big and heavy, so many persons assume that it is three times as ferocious, and therefore to be dreaded almost like a Tiger. The fact is, the American Wildcat or Bobcat is a very shy creature, ready to run from a very small dog, never facing a man and rarely killing anything bigger than a Rabbit.
I never saw but one Bobcat in the Yellowstone Park, and that was not in the Park, but at Gardiner where it was held a captive. ”

“ When you approach, away dashes the dark mother, betraying her nest, and then chatters her anxiety from a neighboring bush, where she is soon joined by the red-shouldered male, who comes scolding over your head, chattering and uttering a sharp "phe phee-e."
I hear the note of a bobolink concealed in the top of an apple-tree behind me. Though this bird's full strain is ordinarily somewhat trivial, this one appears to be meditating a strain as yet unheard in meadow or orchard. ”

“ The two parent birds in the plate represent the change from the dark plumage in which the bird is commonly known in the North as the Bobolink, to the dress of yellowish brown by which it is known throughout the South as the Rice or Reed Bird.
His nest, small and a plain one, too, is built on the ground by his industrious little wife. The inside is warmly lined with soft fibers of whatever may be nearest at hand. ”

“ Nan and Dorothy, having finished looking at each other's dresses, which always seems to delight girls, had come up on deck so that now the whole Bobbsey family, and their country, and seashore cousin visitors also, were there.
"Have you caught any fish yet?" asked Mr. Bobbsey, walking over to where Bert and Harry were dangling their lines in the water.
"Not yet, but we've had two or three bites," said Bert, hopefully.
"I think you'll have better luck when we reach some quiet place, and anchor," Mr. Bobbsey went on. "At any rate, you need not worry, if you don't catch any fish. ”