Page:Drawing for Beginners.djvu/132

 part of that large family known as rodents. The word 'rodent' means 'gnawing.' This is helpful to remember when we are drawing these animals, for it explains at once the characteristic shape of the teeth, mouth, and head.

When we sketch mice or rats the long, narrow, pointed muzzle and long, narrow, overhanging teeth are very noticeable; once we have marked these, and added the long sloping forehead, the small under-jaw, the wide upstanding rounded ear and bright dark eye, we have the main characteristics.

Squirrels and rabbits have shorter snouts and more blunted muzzles, but the teeth are long and pointed; this we must carefully note in our drawings.

Rabbits are endearing but difficult models, for they seldom stay long in one position and are easily startled by a sudden noise. Nevertheless, if you sit by the hutch and keep very still, pencil and paper in hand, Master Bunny will eventually creep from his straw.

Then note the three-cornered shape of his head, with the long ears closely placed on the very apex, and the beautiful, wide-open eye with its long lashes. The nose, always twitching, is blunt and short and pink, the nostril very small but of a very decided shape, and the muzzle rounded and full. The hind-legs are of an extraordinary size, but gathered together in a hunched position as Bunny sits in a hutch nibbling morsels of food they are not so noticeable; the spine rises from the head in a long steep curve from the neck to the top of the thighs.

There is nothing more soft and fluffy than the tail of a rabbit&mdash;'Cotton-tail,' as he is called in America. So soft is it that we must indicate it with the most delicate touches, noticing the way in which the hairs grow from the root of the tail and spread outward and upward like the down of a powder-puff.

By drawing our small friends, rabbits, squirrels, frogs, birds, and cats, we shall be aided in attempting, presently, the more ambitious creatures, dogs, cows, bulls, and horses.