But
Bighorn's greatest enemy, and one he fears most, is the same one
so many others have sad cause to fear--the hunter with his terrible
gun. The terrible gun can kill where man himself cannot climb, and
Bighorn has been persistently hunted for his head and wonderful horns.
"Some people believe that Bighorn leaps from cliffs and alights on
those great horns, but this not true. Whenever he leaps he alights
on those sure feet of his, not on his head.
"Way up in the extreme northwest corner of this country, in a place
called Alaska, is a close cousin whose coat is all white and whose
horns are yellow and more slender and wider spreading. He called
the Dall Mountain Sheep. Farther south, but not as far south as
the home of Bighorn, is another cousin whose coat is so dark that
he is sometimes called the Black Mountain Sheep. His proper name
is Stone's Mountain Sheep. In the mountains between these two is
another cousin with a white head and dark body called Fannin's
sheep. All these cousins are closely related and in their habits
are much alike. Of them all, Bighorn the Rocky Mountain Sheep is
the best known."
"I should think," said Peter Rabbit, "that way up there on those
high mountains Bighorn would be very lonesome."
Old Mother Nature laughed. "Bighorn doesn't care for neighbors as
you do, Peter," said she.
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