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 own 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. 
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