The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-04-20
THE YEAR OF NO RABBITS

nest. ana TO keep her breasts sup
piled with milk for their precious de
rands she had to have good hunting
Unlike some more fortunate moth
crs Of the wild, she had to care foi
her family alone To her fcrocious
mate she dared not let their hiGnp
place be known, lest in some unnatu
ral moment he should make a mea
Of them ordinarily except in mating
season, they saw little of each other
this wild and sullen pair. But in
this season of scarcity they often met
for the purpose of hunting down to-
gether some game too powerful for
either to manage alone Together, if
fortune favored them, they would per.
haps pun down a buck When they
had Toasted full, and dragged the car
Cass into ticket for safer hiding,
the female would start back in anXi-
Gus haste her den The male would
make as if to follow her; but she
would turn upon him ii such a blaze
OF fury that he would jump back. sit
upon his great launches, lick his
bloodstained chaps, and gaze at her
with an innocence as demure as that
of any Tabby that ever made way
with the canary. The prudent moth
er was not to be deceived. Staring
back over her shadowy gray shoulder,
she would growl and spit and snarl
till she was quite out of sight of that
dangerous figure. Then she would
wheel in her tracks and flash off in
another direction And her mate had
too much respect for his hide to at
tempt to follow her
One day as she came racing back
home from one of these expeditions,
now gliding like a flicker of light,
now bounding in great noiseless leaps,
"a sudden forethought smota her
She had been away, perhaps a little
longer than usual. Lengthening her
self out, she shot forward and in
among the huddled rocks. AS she
arrived a Whit of pungent scent
smote her nOstrils, and she caught
sight of a streak of rudy yellow fur
under the bush. With
one lightning spring she came down
upon the bush. But there was nothing
there. She saw a large fox just whisk-
ing round the next boulder. For one
agonized moment she hesitated, rag
ing to pursue and rip him to shreds
with her terrific claws. But the moth
er pull was too strong. She raced
on up to the den and darted in with
an anxious whimper of inquiry.
Her kittens were all there, undis-
turbed, and Mostly nosing for their
meal as soon as they felt her and
smelt her bending over them. But
she had no time just then to crafty
their wants. She was too much con
cerned about their enemies. Giving
them a hurried lick of reinsurance,
to their squalling Indignation, she left
them abruptly.
Shifting carefully outside, she quick
ly satisfied herself that the fox had
come only to within some ten feet
or so of the entrance; but that was
more than enough for her mother
fears. The enemy had been recon
and he had found the hiding
place of her treasures. He was an
enemy whom she dreaded, because of
his cunning so much superior to her
own Beside herself with rage and
fear, she searched every nook and
crevice of the knoll; but of course
she found nothing of him except the
musky smell he had left behind him
so literally.
AS luck would have 1t, however at
the foot of the knoll, almost directly
beneath the lair itself, she found an
other intruder. Nosing for roots in
the rich earth between the rocks was
a black bear. His presence there was
quite innocent. His thoughts were
far from young lynxes; but to the
eyes of the anxious mother he was
shifting his way to the hiding place
of her little ones.
Now, the most powerful of lynzes
Of course, is no match for a bear; but
a mothers a mother-and that makes
all the difference in the world. The
bear was attentively turning over the
moss and sod, unmindful of danger
when a cyclone of claws and teeth
and screechhs fell upon his neck
Taken so completely by surprise, he
fairly bleated, and gave futile clutches
over the shoulder with his massive
paws, which would have make short
work of his audacious assailant could
they have fairly reached her, But
they touched nothing save a little
elusive fur; and the next moment
seized with panic, he wheeled and fec
1ryy,