ANIMAL COMPANIONS 61 



Where do the wild rabbits live ? Where do the squirrels live ? What other 

 familiar animals live in holes, in trees, or in the earth? Where are the 

 homes of chipmunks, gophers, ground hogs, and muskrats, and what are 

 their habits ? Perhaps something can be learned of the structure of these 

 houses and their uses as storehouses for food as well as places of retreat. 

 Ernest Ingersoll's Wild Life of Orchard and Field has some fascinating 

 chapters on these common rodents and their homes. 



Means of protection. When do cats, dogs, and horses shed their hair 

 and why do they do it ? When do they need their heaviest coat ? Where 

 do the animals with very thick fur live ? What are some of the animals 

 whose fur man uses ? 



When a dog chases a cat how does she defend herself ? (See Ernest 

 Thompson Seton's Johnny Bear.) If a dog should run after a squirrel how 

 could the squirrel protect itself ? Could a cat escape from a dog by flight ? 

 Could a rabbit run away from a dog ? Could it defend itself against a dog ? 

 How would it escape harm ? Could a horse run away from a troublesome 

 dog ? How could a horse protect itself from a dog in a way other than by 

 flight ? 



In answering the foregoing questions probably horns, hoofs, teeth, and 

 claws will be mentioned as weapons of defense. Name other animals 

 besides those mentioned above that use claws, or teeth, or hoofs, or horns 

 for defense. Can you think of any other defensive structures besides 

 horns, hoofs, teeth, and claws ? Do all the deer have horns ? Which sheep 

 have horns ? Why do roosters have spurs when the hens have none ? 

 Can you think of other animals in which the males are especially armed 

 with means of defense ? Tell the story of the fight of the male to defend 

 the young or the females. Such stories are to be found in Roberts' Heart 

 of the Ancient Wood, chapter viii, "Red Dog" in Kipling's Second Jungle 

 Book, "Lobo" in Thompson Seton's Wild Animals I Have Known. Some 

 effective pictures to show just at this point are Landseer's "Deer Pass," 

 " The Combat," and Thompson Seton's " Krag, the Kootenay Ram." Make 

 emphatic this especial adaptation of the male to protect the weaker females 

 and the unprotected young. Lead the children to admire his reckless 

 expenditure of strength and even of life in so doing. The natural pugnacity 

 of the boy may be directed toward gallantry and the protection of the 

 weak. This fighting instinct that sooner or later possesses every normal 

 lad needs not repression but encouragement and proper guidance. 



The sense organs as protectors. The keenness of the animal's senses 

 plays an important part in its protection. That animal escapes detection 

 whose sharp eye, quick ear, and sensitive nose give it warning while the 

 source of danger is yet a great way off. Recall the results of tests suggested 



