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INTRODUCTION 



JT is a pleasure to write an introduction to Mr. 

 Wallihan's really noteworthy book, for his pho- 

 tographs of wild game possess such peculiar 

 value that all lovers, whether of hunting or of 

 natural history, should be glad to see them preserved in per- 

 manent form. The art and practice of photographing wild 

 animals in their native haunts has made great progress in 

 recent years. It is itself a branch of sport, and hunting with 

 the camera has many points of superiority when compared to 

 hunting with the rifle. But, even under favorable conditions, 

 very few men have the skill, the patience, the woodcraft and 

 plainscraft which enabled Mr. Wallihan to accomplish so 

 much; and, moreover, the conditions as regards most of our 

 big game animals are continually changing for the worse. 

 The difficulties of getting really good and characteristic photo- 

 graphs are such as to be practically insuperable where game is 

 very scarce and very shy, and throughout most of the United 

 States game is steadily growing scarcer and shyer. Photo- 

 graphs in a game preserve, no matter how large this preserve, 

 are, of course, not quite the same thing. 



The elk have now almost everywhere diminished in numbers 

 so that it would be very difficult indeed to get pictures like some 



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