THE BOOK SHELF 



The Minds and Manners of Wild Animals. W. T. Harnaday, 

 328 pp. Illustrated. Scribners. 



There is, probably, no other man in America or possibly in the 

 world so well fitted by experience to write on the minds and man- 

 ners of wild animals as is Dr. Hornaday. For years he was a 

 collector of mammals for museums in almost all the wilderness 

 countries of the world ; and he had the skillful hunter's opportunity 

 to study the minds and manners of wild animals in their natural 

 environment. Since 1896 he has been in charge of the New York 

 Zoological Gardens which he has built up to a high rank among 

 the Zoological Gardens of the world. He has made it a part of his 

 business as a measure necessary to his success to study the habits 

 and dispositions, the comfort and the peculiar ways of animals in 

 captivity, therefore we might expect that he would give to us this 

 most important book which is a joy to animal lovers and will 

 surely be of real service to the animal psychologist. 



Dr. Hornaday is conservative in his statements of facts as 

 observed by himself and his interpretations of animal behavior 

 are sane and dependable, moreover there is not a page in the book 

 that is not interesting. In fact, certain chapters are full of thrills 

 and Dr. Hornaday's sense of humor adds greatly to the reader's 

 enjoyment. In his introduction he says "If every man devoted 

 to his affairs, and to the affairs of his city and state, the same 

 measure of intelligence and honest industry that every warm- 

 blooded wild animal devotes to its affairs, the people of this world 

 would abound in good health, prosperity, peace and happiness. 

 To assume that every wild beast and bird is a sacred creature, 

 peacefully dwelling in an earthly paradise, is a mistake. They 

 have their wisdom and their folly, their joys and their sorrows, 

 their trials and tribulations. As the alleged lord of creation, it 



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