A Faunal Naturalist in South America 



Hv T II E () 1) O K E h' ( ) () S I-: \' I-: E T 



SPECIALIZATION, like every 

 otlier good thing, can be ear- 

 lied to excess; and no forms of 

 specialization are less desirable than 

 those which make of the outdoor natu- 

 ralist a mere collector of "specimens,"' 

 and of the indoor naturalist a mere la- 

 borious cata- 

 loguer and de- 

 scriber of these 

 specimens 

 when collected. 

 The outdoor na- 

 turalist ought 

 to be able to do 

 all the indoor 

 work too; and 

 he ought to 

 have the power 

 to see and to 

 portray the life 

 histories of the 

 shy creatures 

 of the far-off 

 wilderness. 



But it is well 

 if he can go 

 even beyond 

 this. No man 

 leads a hardier 

 or more ad- 

 venturous life 

 than the col- 

 lecting natural- 

 ist whose quest 



takes him to the uttermost parts of the 

 earth. He works in the wildest lands, 

 and on the shifting borders where the 

 raw outskirts of civilization merge into 

 savagery. He works with the wild men 

 of the forest and the desert, and with 

 the men only one degree less wild who 

 do the most primitive work of civiliza- 

 tion on the borders of the forest and the 



1 Colonel Roosevelt prepared this article for the Journai- during his recent stay at a New York 

 hospital, showing his vast interest in natural history, his groat energy even under the trying con- 

 ditions of ill health, and his loyalty to tlic men wliose work he hud roniH to know jiersonally on liis 

 expeditions.— The Editor. 



663 



Photon vu I'll "." t'^'iiinl Roosevelt 

 Courtesij of Charles Scribner's Sons 

 Mr. Miller, the author of In the Wilds of South Amer- 

 ica, with "Moses." — Mr. Miller's prime work every- 

 wliere, the work which is never neglected, is that of a 

 keen mammalogist and ornithologist, but he is likewi.se 

 an observer of men and manners, and a lover of beauty. 

 He has written a book which will appeal to all cultured 

 people who care for adventurous wanderings in out-of- 

 the-way places, for studies of remote peoples, and for the 

 gorgeous animal life of the tropics 



desert. If he has eyes to see he will 

 have many a tale to tell ; and if he can 

 tell it aright the tale becomes an addi- 

 tion to that shelf of true stories of ad- 

 venture in strange lands which is so 

 fascinating a part of the great library 

 of worth-while literature. 



Mr. Leo E. 

 ]\lillcr is one 

 of these men. 

 At the mo- 

 ment he is a 

 lieutenant in 

 aviation, chief 

 observer at 

 Camp Jackson, 

 South Caro- 

 lina, and if the 

 opportunity 

 comes, all those 

 who have seen 

 him in times 

 of hardship and 

 stress in the 

 wilderness 

 know that he 

 will make good. 

 He has jour- 

 neyed far and 

 wide through 

 the middle, the 

 north, and the 

 west of the 

 great South 

 American con- 

 tinent. He has seen the strange and 

 curious things which are only to be seen 

 by those who leave the beaten paths of 

 travel. His prime work everywhere, the 

 work which is never neglected, is that 

 of a keen mammalogist and ornitholo- 

 gist. But he is likewise an observer of 

 men and manners, a lover of beauty, 

 and a well-read man of well-trained 



