Introduction 



valuable and interesting mammals where moderation and proper 

 protection would ensure their preservation for an indefinite time. 

 In long past ages man learned the importance of protecting the 

 most useful mammals of the Old World— the ancestors of the 

 so-called domestic animals — and this he continues to do to-day, 

 but in the case of wild animals, which he finds in other coun- 

 tries, he seems blind to the importance of similar care. 



In our ov^^n country the buffalo is gone, the moose and 

 elk are rapidly decreasing, and the fur seals are threatened with 

 extermination in spite of all laws and regulations. In Africa all 

 the large "game" is being shot off by adventure-loving ex- 

 plorers and many species are even now nearing extinction; and 

 so it is elsewhere. 



While the value of mammals from a purely economic point 

 constitutes their main importance to the world at large, their 

 scientific characters and the study of their life and habits are 

 most absorbing, and with the spreading interest in nature study we 

 can well afford to give them a share of our attention. 



From their high position in the animal kingdom it seems 

 strange at first thought that we do not see more of mammals 

 in our woods and fields. It is only the most common species 

 that we are at all familiar with and though the country may be 

 teeming with bird and insect life we are not likely on an ordinary 

 ramble to see more of the mammals than a few squirrels, a mouse 

 or two and perhaps a rabbit, muskrat or woodchuck. 



Mammals are, however, much more plentiful than we suppose. 

 Go out after a snowfall and see what a record of foot-prints is 

 presented. Evidently our four-footed friends are largely nocturnal 

 in habits, and it is this fact together with their general wariness 

 and extremely acute sense of hearing, smell and sight that render 

 them so hard to see. 



The very difficulties which beset the study of mammals in the 

 field render it all the more attractive, and we envy the woodsman 

 whose long practice renders conspicuous to him signs that to the 

 beginner are passed again and again unnoticed. As we follow a 

 trail through the forest, his quick eye notes that a bear has pre- 

 ceded us. Here are some herbs that he has grubbed up, there 

 are his muddy footprints on a log and the rotten bark has peeled 

 off with his weight as he jumped down, and here again he 

 has risen on his hind feet to claw and bite the bark of a tree. 



xiv 



