LITERARY AND BIOGRAPHICAL. 



79 



a mother who must have been content 

 to sacrifice the comfort of her family 

 to her ambition to produce a unique 

 setting for her eggs, her very flat nest 

 of coarse brown twigs being orna- 

 mentally lined with clumps of cedar 

 set apart from each other, the spaces 

 between being filled with pieces of 

 white birch bark, altogether a rather 

 unfriendly suggestion in connection 

 with the little breasts of unfledged 

 birds, however unique and ornamental. 

 Perhaps the naturalist, in his enthu- 



siasm concerning nature, may be right- 

 fully accused of sometimes elevating 

 certain interesting forms of humble 

 life to imaginary planes of intelligence, 

 but no observer of the work of the 

 nest builders, whose tasks are complet- 

 ed often beneath our eye, can fail to 

 attribute to the birds powers of dis- 

 crimination in color marvelous indeed 

 and displaying an art spirit, an ap- 

 preciation of color tones, which ap- 

 proaches the best of its kind in human 

 thought. 



Literary 



BIOGRAPHICAL 



The American Animal of Photography. 

 1909. Volume XXIII. Edited by John 

 A. Tennant. New York City: Tennant 

 and Ward. 



The "Annual" improves as the years go 

 by. This is replete with good material. 

 We congratulate the editor and the pub- 

 lishers. It has brought much pleasure to 

 our studio. 



The Biography of a Silver-Fox : or, Domino 

 Reynard of Goldur Town. By Ernest 

 Thompson Seton. New York: The Cen- 

 tury Co. 



The purpose is to show the man-world 

 how the fox-world lives — and above all to 

 advertise and emphasize the beautiful mo- 

 nogamy of the better-class Fox. — Author's 

 foreword. 



And so the author tells the story from his 

 cub-hood to his splendid prime of that 

 aristocrat of foxes, Domino Reynard, and 

 of his wild, free, happy life among the 

 Goldur hills. Domino was a silver fox: 



"Only those wise in the woodlore of the 

 North can fully know the magic in the 

 name. The silver fox is not of different 

 kind, but a glorified freak of the red race. 

 His parents may have been the commonest 

 of red foxes, yet nature in extravagant 

 mood may have showered all her gifts on 

 this favored one of the offspring, and not 

 only clad him in a marvelous coat, but gifted 

 him with speed and wind and brains above 

 his kind, to guard his perilous wealth. And 

 need he has of all such power, for this ex- 

 quisite robe is so mellow rich, so wonderful 

 in style, with its glossy black and delicate 

 frosting, that it is the most desirable, the 

 most precious of all furs, worth many times 

 its weight in gold, the noblest peltry known 



ERNEST THOMPSON SETON 



to man. It is the proper robe of kings, the 

 appanage of great imperial thrones to-day 

 as was the Tyrian purple in the days of 

 Rome. This is indeed the hunter's highest 

 prize, but so guarded by the cunning brain 

 and the wind and limb of the beast himself, 

 that it is through rare good luck more than 

 hunter skill that a few of these fur jewels 

 are taken each year in the woods." 



So Domino had good need of all his cun- 

 ning, and his life was an adventurous one. 

 The story of his adventures and his cunning 

 is one to hold and thrill from the first page 

 to the last. It is the story of Snowyruff as 

 well as of Domino, too: 



"For ages the beasts have been groping 

 for an ideal form of marriage. All the 



