Introduction 



How clear the story is when once it has been pointed out! 

 And we feel that in studying the marks of his presence we 

 have learned something of the bear himself. 



Tracks on the snow are much easier hieroglyphs to decipher; 

 to use Burrough's words: "The snow is a great tell-tale and 

 blabs as effectually as it obliterates. I go into the woods and 

 know all that has happened. I cross the field, and if only a 

 mouse has visited his neighbour, the fact is chronicled." It is, 

 indeed, a fascinating task to read the story of the mammals in 

 the snow, to learn to know the sharp clear-cut trail of the fox, 

 the blurred mark of the rabbit's hairy foot, the nervous tread 

 of the squirrels and the dainty traceries of the mice and shrews. 



A knowledge of mammals doubles the interest of an ordinary 

 ramble to the lover of nature. Even though we see but few, 

 we learn to know their presence and see their work on every 

 side, and the more we learn of their ways the more frequent 

 glimpses we get of them. 



The pleasure of seeing and studying a wild animal in life 

 to me far outranks the gratification of making a good shot and 

 "bagging my game," and I think that if the pleasure men feel in 

 hunting were carefully analyzed it will be found that besides 

 being close to nature it rests largely in the contest of skill and 

 craft between hunter and game and that the mere killing is any- 

 thing but a gratification. 



Structure and Classification 



Mammals form one of the great classes of vertebrate animals. 

 The most important character which they have in common, but 

 which is not possessed by any other animals, is that the young 

 are nourished for some time after birth on milk secreted by the 

 mother. Furthermore, all mammals are covered with more or less 

 hair* in distinction to the feathers of birds, and the scales of fishes 

 and reptiles. 



Mammals are supposed to have originated from some early 

 reptilian animal and branched off long before the birds were 

 evolved. They first became abundantly distributed over the Ter- 

 tiary period though the earliest remains occur in the Triassic. 



* Entirely disappears in adult whales. 



