1 8 WATCHED BY WILD ANIMALS 



me, until within ten or twelve feet. Then he 

 sort of skated off the rock and disappeared. 

 This was the nearest any cony, with the excep- 

 tion of Rocky on the top of Long's Peak, had 

 ever let me come. His manner of getting off 

 the rock, too, instead of starting away from me 

 in several short runs, made me think it must be 

 Rocky. 



The American cony lives on top of the world 

 on the crest of the continent. By him lives 

 also the weasel, the ptarmigan, and the Big- 

 horn wild sheep; but no other fellow lives higher 

 in the sky than he; he occupies the conning 

 tower of the continent. 



But what did these " rock-rabbits " eat? 

 They were fat and frolicking the year around. 



The following September I came near Rocky 

 again. He was standing on top of a little hay- 

 stack his haystack. All alone he was working. 

 This was his food supply for the coming winter; 

 conies are grass and hay eaters. A hay harvest 

 enables the cony to live on mountain tops. 



Rocky's nearly complete stack was not knee- 

 high, and was only half a step long. As I stood 

 looking at him and his tiny stack of hay, he 

 jumped off and ran across the rocks as fast as 

 his short legs could speed him. A dozen or so 

 steps away he disappeared behind a boulder, 

 as though leaving for other scenes. 



