CllAI'IKK XVF 

 AMi:i;i( A\ MAMMAL I'KOI'.LKMS 



I'iacli t'orm of aiiiniiil <>r })laiit .slutuld Ijc looked uiion as an experiment in 

 iiiakiim- a inachine which shall best tit its eiiviroiiiiieiit and most effectively 

 do the work re<iiiired of it. The tit live ; the untit are relegated to the bio- 

 loi;ical scrap heap, that is, become extinct. Care of offspring and protection 

 from the elements are prime factors in fitness to survive. Mammals excel in 

 l)oth of these functions and characters, and while the feather is as light and 

 perhaps more beautiful, hair is tougher and stands harder wear, and milk 

 carried by the mother is a safer provision for tlie young than food packed 

 in tlie shell of an d'^ix. Above all, the intelligence which fashions adaptable 

 protection from the elements, clothes and houses, caps the climax of purely 

 biological litness. 



Mammals. This o-ruup, to wliich man himself Ix'loii^i^s, 

 ranks highest in the scale of animal life. Its various forms 

 dominate easily sea and land and yield only to birds domin- 

 ion of the air. Kvery one knows a bird at sight, but, unlike 

 this eompaet group, nunnmals differ extremely in structure 

 from tishlike porpoises and ^vhales to birdlike l)ats. In gen- 

 eral, hair is as characteristic of nunnmals as feathers of birds; 

 and aside from a few freak forms, like the Australian duck- 

 bill (^OrnffJi'Tf/Hchus jHwarhirus, ''bird-nosed paradox'*), ^^■hich 

 lays eggs and incubates them like a bird, mammals agree in 

 m)urishin<>" the youn^^ ^vith milk. 



Among the more important problems relating to American 

 mannnals are the following: 



1. Extermhuitiou of predacious forms as the continent has 

 been opened up to settlement — panthers, bears, lynxes and 

 wild cats, wolverines, wolves, minks, skunks, and weasels. 



2. Utilization of native wild animals — bison, elk, moose, 

 deer, antelope, mountain slun^p and goats, hares and rabbits. 



