Bunting

“ These birds spend the day in the fields. As they live in the midst of plenty they enjoy much leisure. This they employ perched on a head of millet making a joyful noise. Sometimes one will be sitting thus on a particular stalk when a friend will fly up, drive him from his position, and in turn hold forth, only to be playfully ousted by another of his comrades. Verily the life of a bunting is a jolly one.
Like rosy starlings, the buntings are not very much in evidence until they begin to collect in huge flocks preparatory to leaving India for the hot weather. ”

“ Of all the birds that remain with us throughout the year, the bunting is the latest to breed, the nest being usually built in May. It is placed among grass and herbage close to the ground, and formed of dry grass and fibrous roots, lined with horsehair and fine fibres. Four to six eggs are laid, dull purplish white or pale yellowish in ground-colour, blotched and streaked with dark brown, with some patches of a dull lavender hue. ”

“ From its black head, which is very conspicuous by contrast with the white collar, it is often called the black-headed bunting, a name which more properly belongs to a continental species to be noticed later on as an accidental visitor to this country. The male is a persistent singer in the spring months, and, perched near the top of a reed, or on the topmost branch of an alder tree, he will repeat at intervals his slight reedy song of four or five notes, the last somewhat prolonged. If disturbed, he will fly a little distance ahead and perch again ”

“ Rabbit-skins sewed together make the warmest of blankets, even though the fingers may be pushed through them anywhere, and an Indian child dressed up in them, like "baby bunting," is a funny-looking but very cozy creature. ”

“ She was not very shy, and simply uttered a fine chirp when I went too close to her nestlings, while her gallant consort did not even chirp, but tried to divert my attention by repeatedly curveting in the air and singing his choicest measures. This was the only bunting's nest I found, although I made long and diligent search for others, as you may well believe when I state that a half day was spent in gathering the facts recorded in the last two paragraphs.
In the afternoon I watched a female in another field for a long time, but she was too wary to betray her secret. ”

“ Baby Bunting. We hunted for some wabbits. It was a lot of fun. We catched a big wabbit for Wover, [29] And a little bwown bunny for me. I’m a-going to keep mine always, He’s cute as he can be.
Rock-a-bye Baby. Did Wover keep his bunny, too?
Baby Bunting. No, he put his paw wight on it, And ate it up! He didn’t leave Enough to make a bonnet. He ate it, bones and fur and all! He weally did, you know, And when I came away, I left him Twying to catch a cwow.
(All sing. Tune: No. 13.)
No. 13. BABY BUNTING.
[Play Music]
All. ”

“ Is a species of bunting, a native of Angola and other parts of Africa. And is remarkable for the feathers of its tail. The two middle ones are about four inches long, and ending in a long thread, the two next are thirteen inches in length, broad and narrowing towards the points, from these proceed another long thread. ”

“ Unless one knows it, and the cause of it, one may listen a long time and not discover the bird that utters it. The buntings sit as usual, motionless and unseen among the leaves of the tree, and, so long as you are near the nest, keep up the sound, an excessively sharp metallic chirp, uttered in turns by both birds, but always a short note in the female, and a double note in the male, the second one prolonged to a wail or squeal. ”

“ The gay Bunting erects his white crest, and gives utterance to the joy he feels in the presence of his brooding mate. The Willow Grous on the rock crows his challenge aloud. Each floweret, chilled by the night air, expands its pure petals; the gentle breeze shakes from the blades of grass the heavy dewdrops. ”

“ then with the arrival of noisy helpers the scene became one of riotous carnival. For they carried boxes of coloured balls, bales of scarlet and yellow bunting, baskets laden with glittering tinsel, trumpets painted silver and vermilion, dolls in vivid muslin dresses, stars and medallions, tops and skipping ropes, and tumbled them in festive profusion over baskets and chairs. ”

“ When waiting in a dry ditch with a gun on a warm autumn afternoon for a rabbit to come out, sometimes a bunny will suddenly appear at the mouth of a hole which your knee nearly touches. He stops dead, as if petrified with astonishment, sitting on his haunches. ”

“ To do justice to the intelligence of the dog, and to be truthful about the rabbit, it must be remembered that, in the chase, Bunny usually has the advantage of knowing the lay of the land. The short cuts, streams, logs, briers, and roads are all in mind before he takes a jump. The dog is often on strange ground. Free the rabbit for the hunt, as you do the fox, on unknown territory, and the dogs will soon take the frightened, bewildered little creature.
There is no braver or more devoted mother in all the wilds than Molly Cottontail. ”

“ To Rabbit the baying of the hounds became all blended into one thing with the heat of the sun, sharp detonations, the feeling of wet paws, the vertigo of flight, with fright, with the smell of the clay, and the sparkle of the brook, with the waving to and fro of wild carrots and the crackling of maize, with the moonshine and the joyous emotion of seeing his mate appearing amid the fragrant meadow-sweet. ”

“ Duck. "You must stay in the nest until you are strong."
And the little duck wriggled back again under her mother's wing.
"We will come again to see your ducks," said Bunny.
After two or three days the three rabbits went back to see the little ducks.
There was nothing in the nest under the bushes but a few broken shells.
"Where can the ducks be?" said Bunny.
"Tweet, tweet!" sang the sparrow. "I saw Mrs. Duck and all the little ducks going to the barn."
"There they are now," sang another sparrow.
Bunny and Bobtail and Billy looked across the field. ”

“ Over and over they go, bounding and bouncing, snapping from their marvelous hind legs as if shot from a spring-trap. It is the greatest jumping exhibition that you will ever see. To have such legs as these is the next best thing to having wings.
Right in the thick of the fun sounds a sharp thump! thump! Every rabbit "freezes." It is the stamp of an old buck, the call, Danger! danger! He has heard a twig break in the woods, or has seen a soft, shadowy thing cross the moon.
As motionless as stumps squat the rabbits, stiff with the tenseness of every ready muscle. They listen. ”

“ It is marvellous to note with what a venomous hatred the beater regards the bunny. Pheasant or partridge he is careless of; even the hare is, in comparison, a thing of nought, but let him once set eyes on a rabbit, and his whole being seems to change. His eye absolutely flashes, his chest heaves with excitement beneath the ancient piece of sacking that protects his form from thorns. If the rabbit falls to the shot, he yells with exultation; if it be missed, an expression of morose and gloomy disappointment settles on his face, as who should say, "Things are played out; the world is worthless!" ”

“ Up rose the kingly foxgloves, tier upon tier of them pink-purple, but Bunny Rabbit missed these too.
A golden world—the ragwort blazing on the slope, below the mellowing corn-field, and, mantling primrose hills, the dawn.
{102} Now Bunny Rabbit was ready.
The burrow winds in four sharp turns, and, at each one, he stubbed his nose. This through a mad desire to keep near Mother; for Mother's tail bobbed in quick jerks, shaving each corner to a hair, and he and all his brothers raced to catch it. ”

“ Judged by the standard of a rabbit, Bunny was a fairly clever little creature, and the plans she formed as she hid in the undergrowth seemed to show that she possessed unusual forethought. She waited and watched for several nights, till the badgers had ceased to labour, and the mound before the “set” remained apparently untouched. Then, one evening, after she had seen the badgers go off together into the heart of the wood, she entered, and moved along the gallery, pausing here and there to touch the walls with her sensitive muzzle. ”

“ O my mother and father, I see that the snow has fallen, whereby easily rabbits are tracked, and the young men who went out this morning returned long before evening heavily laden with strings of this game. Behold, in the other rooms of our house are many rabbit-sticks, and there hang on the walls stone axes, and with these I might perchance strike down a rabbit on his trail, or, if he run into a log, split the log and dig him out. ”

“ Well, it was mighty lucky that this firefly had her tiny lantern along with her, for I don't know how the two little rabbits would have reached home if she hadn't lighted the way for them, for the Bunnymobile lantern had gone out, you see.
"We must buy some new ones," said the old gentleman bunny. "We may be arrested any night, and that would be most unpleasant." ”

“ Bumper was so young and inexperienced that he didn't know a drain-pipe from an ordinary hole in the ground, nor for that matter a tree trunk that was hollow inside from a rabbit's burrow. Bumper was a city-bred rabbit, born in the backyard of a tenement house, and how could you expect him to know much of the things that ordinary wild rabbits learn by heart before their whiskers begin to sprout? ”

“ Bunny, always on the alert, makes a bolt for his life with the ferret at his back and the old hound waiting at the other end of the hole to crush his life out. He stops a moment at the entrance as the dog makes a vicious snap at him, returns to meet his arch enemy, lets out a pitiful squeal, and meekly allows his life blood to be sucked without further resistance. ”

“ A rabbit came hopping down the game trail in believed perfect security, passing so close to Fine Bow that he could not resist the desire to strike at him with an arrow. Both boys were obliged to cover their mouths with their open hands to keep from laughing aloud at the surprise and speed shown by the frightened bunny, as he scurried around a bend in the trail, with his white, pudgy tail bobbing rapidly. ”

“ Now and then one bunny, in the sheer joy of living, skipped three feet into the air, and the older bucks chivied the younger ones in and out of the earthworks which many generations of excavators had thrown up. Two rabbits [119] were playing 'tig' on the slope, dodging one another backwards and forwards. The White Doe watched their twinkling white scuts for a minute, and then, just as the moon broke from behind the clouds, with a hop, skip, and jump she launched herself playfully between the couple. ”

“ As they hopped along they were talking about what they could do to have some fun.
"Let's make a long slide to-day," said Bunny.
"Oh, let's make a big pile of snowballs," said Bobtail.
"Let's make a snow rabbit," said Billy. "We can make it in front of our house."
Bunny jumped up and down in the snow. He made a snowball and threw it at Billy.
"Oh! I like to play in the snow," he said. "I like to play in the snow."
Plump! Something hit Bunny on the head.
"I like to play, too," some one called to the rabbits. ”

“ Looking around us for our household pets after the dog and the cat, we find that Bunny, the rabbit, comes next. Bunny is a darling pet of the little ones, who dearly love to fondle this pretty bundle of fur. They are sometimes too kind and the poor little thing suffers from their fondness. That is the sad way with children's pets, they are at times loved to death.
But the rabbit is kept for something else than a child's plaything. It is often raised for food, much like the hen and the duck, and its furry skin brings a good price. ”

“ As I was at one time an enthusiastic hunter of quail it gives me a pleasant glow to realise that, with such abundant opportunities at hand, I came through the hunting season without being tempted to do them harm. Of course there is a little matter of rabbits, but rabbits are something of a nuisance, given to girdling young trees and rose bushes. ”

“ Bunny thought for about half a minute.
"Are you going to make a trap to catch something?" the little boy asked. Ever since he had come to Camp Rest-a-While he had begged Bunker to make a trap to catch a fox, or a squirrel, or something like that. Bunny did not want to hurt the wild animals, but he thought he would like to catch one in a trap, and try to tame it.
"No, I'm not making a trap," answered Bunker. "I don't believe you children could guess what these sticks are for if you tried all day. ”

“ The rabbit, failing to find a cover, hides in the grass and dry rushes; but across the meadow, stealing along the furrow, comes the weasel; and, shift his place how he may, in the end, worn out and weary, bunny succumbs, and the sharp teeth meet in the neck behind the ear, severing the vein. ”

“ They are as wings compared with the deformities that bear up the ordinary rabbit hound. With winged legs, protecting color, a clear map of the country in his head,—its stumps, rail-piles, cat-brier tangles, and narrow rabbit-roads,—with all this as a handicap, Bunny may well run his usual cool and winning race. ”

“ When Bunny is on his own ground he is one of the fastest of four-footed things. He lays himself down to the ground, and travels at such a terrific pace for about forty yards that he looks like a mere streak on the ground. I never yet saw a terrier that could turn a rabbit unless Bunny was imprudent enough to wander more than one hundred yards from home. But this wretched brute in our field was moving at the pace proper to feeding time, and, judging by its deliberate sluggishness, it seemed to be inviting death. ”