SHUFELDT 



COMMON FORMS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



61 



becoming of so many of our beautiful game birds?" never thinking 

 for a moment that they are being wiped off the face of the earth by 

 man himself! If we could take every man out of California and 

 keep them all out for half a century, the country would again 

 swarm with her beautiful quails; the problem would solve itself, 

 and the great question be truly answered. Every boy in America 

 should remember this and e\^er keep the fact before him ; not only 

 for California's beautiful quails, but for all the rest of our game 

 birds and mammals. 



Fig.ii. Common Sunfish 



Speaking of the number of species and subspecies that may occur 

 in any assemblage of American forms in Nature, there is a no more 

 numerous one in the vertebrate or back-boned series than fishes. 

 We have simply hundreds of different kinds of fish in our ichthy- 

 f aunas ; for not only is there an enormous array of them in oceanic 

 families and other groups, but we likewise have all of our inland 

 varieties, as those found in our rivers, lakes, and other bodies of 

 fresh water, in different parts of the country, from Alaska to the 

 Mexican boundary line. Indeed, naturalists — perhaps I had 

 better say ichthyologists — have lived and died who devoted their 

 entire lives to this branch of biological science, and then never got 



