Decemiier 24, 11109] 



SCIENCE 



925 



ies of Xortheni Animals.'' for the work deals 

 almost exclusively with the mammals of Mani- 

 toba with such reference to those of North 

 America at large as is required in the full 

 treatment of species which in most instances 

 have a wide Xorth American range. Although 

 the author has spent many years in Manitoba, 

 and is thus an authority from first-hand knowl- 

 edge on the mammals of this province, his 

 studies of the species in life have been made 

 in large part at localities remote from Mani- 

 toba — from the eastern United States, Colo- 

 rado, New Mexico, Wyoming and California 

 northward to Great Slave Lake. This is, of 

 course, as it should be — -an intimate acquain- 

 tance with the species of a local area supple- 

 mented by studies of the same species in their 

 wider distribution.' His life histories of the 

 mammals of Manitoba are thus their life his- 

 tories as species, with special reference to their 

 representation in Manitoba. 



The present work is notable in many ways, 

 some thirteen hundred pages, one hundred 

 plates, two hundred and sixty-seven text illus- 

 trations' and sixty-eight maps being employed 

 to elucidate the history of sixty species. Each 

 history may be characterized as an elaborate 

 monograph of the habits and distribution of 

 the species to which it relates. Technicalities 

 are reduced to a minimum, and are introduced 

 only so far as to give the current technical 

 name of the species and its systematic rela- 

 tions; the descriptions are brief but accurately 

 diagnostic, and, with the profuse illustrations, 

 are sufficient for the identification of the spe- 

 cies and to show its external characteristics. 



Mr. Seton has long been known to those who 

 have kept in touch with his work as an ardent 

 and painstaking student of animal life, and 

 also as a natural history draughtsman of rare 

 ability. His fitness for the task here under- 

 taken is thus evident alike in the text and in 

 the illustrations. 



A few words from the author's preface and 

 introduction will serve to present his view- 

 point and aim in preparing the work. He 

 says: 



'As numbered, but in many cases half a dozen 

 or more figures are included under one number. 



Tills aims to be a book of popular Natural His- 

 tory on a strictly scientific basis. . . . Although 

 I have limited the scope to the 60 species found 

 in Manitoba, this takes in all the large land 

 mammals of the United States, except about a 

 dozen, including five of the big game. Having 

 followed these GO into all parts of tlieir ranges, 

 I have virtually included the Continent from 

 Labrador to California. . . . Thirty years of per- 

 sonal observations are herein set forth; every 

 known fact bearing on tlie habits of these animals 

 has, so far as possible, been presented, and every- 

 thing in my power has been done to make this a 

 serious, painstaking, loving attempt to penetrate 

 the intimate side of the animals' lives — the side 

 that has so long been overlooked, because until 

 lately we have persistently regarded wild things 

 as mere living targets and have seen in them 

 nothing but savage or timorous creatures, killing, 

 or escaping being killed, quite forgetting that they 

 have their homes, their mates, their problems and 

 their sorrows — in short, a home-life that is their 

 real life, and very often much larger and more 

 important than that of which our hostile stand- 

 point has given us such fleeting glimpses. . . . My 

 theme is the living animal. . . . 



No one who believes in Evolution can doubt 

 that man's mind, as well as his body, had its 

 origin in the animals below him. Otherwise ex- 

 pressed, we may say that: Just as surely as we 

 find among the wild animals the germs or begin- 

 nings of man's material make-up, so surely may 

 we find there also the foundations and possibilities 

 of what he has attained to in the world of mind. 

 This thought lends new interest to the doings of 

 animals in their home-life, and I have sought 

 among these our lesser brethren for evidence of 

 it — in the rudiments of speech, sign-language, 

 musical sense, esthetics, amusements, home- 

 making, social system, sanitation, wed-law, morals, 

 personal and territorial property law, etc. . . . 

 As much as possible I have kept my theories apart 

 from my facts, in order that the reader may judge 

 the former for himself. 



In the introduction he further unfolds the 

 plan of treatment, and states that each animal 

 is considered " under some thirt,y different 

 heads " or sections, but in very few cases are 

 they all employed in connection with any one 

 animal, their absence indicating that nothing 

 is known respecting these particular points. 

 Among those most commonly employed are: 



