PREFACE TO THE FIRESIDE EDITION 



The views entertained by the author and publisher as they were 

 represented by the first edition of the "American Natural His- 

 tory" have been materially strengthened by the lapse of time. In 

 1904 we believed that the time was ripe for the publication of a 

 work which, while scientifically accurate, would convey much prac- 

 tical information, and be read through for entertainment before 

 being placed upon the shelf for reference. The highest compliment 

 that the author ever received regarding the original volume was the 

 assurance from a young lady that she had "read every page of it, 

 from cover to cover." 



During the past ten years, the conditions affecting the wild life 

 of North America have swiftly changed. The total amount of 

 scientific facts that have been accumulated by the technologists, 

 and stored up for future reference, is enormous. Scientific "spe- 

 cialization" has become such an educational mania that the old- 

 fashioned "all-round" naturalists now are few and lonesome. At 

 the same time, however, the need for the dissemination of prac- 

 tical every-day knowledge regarding our mammals, birds, reptiles, 

 and fishes never was so great as now. The wholesale destruction 

 of bird life, with the enormously increased cost of living that has 

 come as a natural and inexorable result, renders it highly necessary 

 that people generally should have a chance to recognize their 

 friends and their enemies in the animal world. To-day there are 

 millions of American producers and consumers who do not know 

 their best friends, and who think, for example, that a quail is val- 

 uable only as so many ounces of edible meat for the table. 



