FOREWORD 



After the death of Theodore Roosevelt, a number of his friends 

 who knew him best on the side of sport or natural history inquiry 

 felt very deeply that there should be established for him as a 

 memorial an institution which should carry on a work that was very 

 near his heart — an inquiry into certain phases of natural history 

 in which he had always been interested. Chief among these was an 

 investigation into various processes of wild life and especially into 

 the life history of animals. Such studies would have scientific 

 value and might lead up to matters of economic importance. 



A suggestion to this effect was made to the committee having 

 the Roosevelt Memorial in charge but did not, appear to meet with 

 favor, and those advocating it thought it undesirable to take any 

 action which might seem to be in opposition to the wishes of the 

 Memorial Committee. 



Since Colonel Roosevelt's death, the Roosevelt Wild Life Forest 

 Experiment Station has been established and has done good work. 

 Its plan had been submitted to Colonel Roosevelt, who thought so 

 well of it as to advocate it to some of his associates and to bring 

 it before the Boone and Crockett Club. Its work is in line with 

 the thought of some of Colonel Roosevelt's closest friends, and is 

 of a character that would have greatly interested Colonel Roosevelt. 

 The Station occupies a field not filled by any other institution in 

 the State, and carries on research work on a scale not done elsewhere. 



I feel that this Experiment Station deserves the support of all 

 scientific men and of all lovers of outdoor life, and my personal 

 feeling is that its work may profitably be extended beyond the limits 

 of the State which authorized its establishment. 



The average field-naturalist tends to become a collector of speci- 

 mens rather than an investigator of the ways of animal life. His 

 ambition is to collect the specimens as soon as he can, and as many 

 as he can ; and fearing lest each specimen shall escape him and 

 be lost, he neglects the opportunity to observe it in life and to learn 

 something about its habits and its ways. Often he takes this atti- 

 tude from the institution for which he is working. It desires a 

 great series of specimens which he feels he must secure. Yet the 

 collecting of a large series of specimens, and the bringing them 



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