so long
and so still that Yan first made a sketch that took three of four
minutes, then got out his watch and timed it for three minutes longer
before it moved in the least. Then it fed for some time, and Yan
tried to make a list of the things it ate and the things it shunned,
but could not do so with certainty.

A noisy Flicker came out and alighted close by on a dried branch. The
Rabbit, or really a Northern Hare, "froze"--that is, became perfectly
still for a moment--but the Flicker marks were easy to read and had
long ago been learned as the uniform of a friend, so the Rabbit
resumed his meal, and when the Flicker flew again he paid no heed.
A Crow passed over, and yet another. "No; no danger from them." A
Red-shouldered Hawk wailed in the woods; the Rabbit heard that and
every other sound, but the Red-shoulder is not dangerous, and he knew
it. A large Hawk with _red tail_ circled silently over the glade,
and the Rabbit froze on the instant. That same red tail was the mark
of a dreaded foe. How well Bunny had learned to know them all!

A bunch of clover tempted him to a full repast, after which he hopped
into a tussock in the midst of the glade and there turned himself into
a moss-bump, his legs swallowed up in his fur, and his ears laid over
his back like a pair of empty gloves or a couple of rounded shingles;
his nose-wabblings reduced in number, and he seemed to be sleeping in
the last warm rays of the sun. Yan was very anxious to see whether his
eyes were open or not; he had been told that Rabbits sleep with
open eyes, but at this distance he could not be sure. He had no
field-glass and Guy was not at hand, so the point remained in doubt.

The last sun-blots had gone from the trail and the pond was all
shadowed by the trees on the western side. A Robin began its evening
hymn on a tall tree, where it could see the red sun going down, and a
Veery was trilling his _weary, weary, weary_ in the Elder thicket
along the brook, when another, a larger animal, loomed up in the
distant trail and glided silently toward Yan. Its head was low and he
could not make out what it was. As it stood there for a few seconds
Yan wet his finger in his mouth and held it up. A slight coolness on
the side next the coming creature told Yan that the breeze was from it
to him and would not betray him. It came on, seeming to grow larger,
turned a little to one side, and then Yan saw plainly by the sharp
nose and ears and the bushy tail tha