Relation of Wild Life to the Public 375 



after Nature and Science on the Pacific Coast (P. Elder and Co., 

 San Francisco, 191 5) which set a new standard. The first of these 

 park guide books, by Chittenden, on the Yellowstone, has much 

 real merit even today. In this connection attention should be called 

 to a recent book by Downing ('22) on the Chicago region. Al- 

 though not written primarily for the Cook County Forest, which is 

 in reality a large forest park, it serves as a nature guide manual 

 for that region. 



It has too often been assumed that our only need is for popular 

 literature on the wild life of our parks. But there is also an urgent 

 need of detailed information of a scientific character, as well as 

 of a technical nature concerning the administrative problems of 

 parks. We urgently need a great variety of publications, includ- 

 ing the popular, scientific and technical; and some persons must 

 continuously stress the need of the less popular publications, be- 

 cause the success of our parks cannot be assured without a basal 

 up-to-date knowledge of the facts of nature in them. 



We continually meet with critics of the technical and scientific 

 puiblications, and often similar criticisms of the popular. The 

 critic of the non-popular literature does not realize that most of 

 this has been written by those who on their own time and expense 

 have made these studies and naturally feel free to choose how they 

 shall present their results. Those who are eager for the popular 

 accounts can secure these also, without question, if they are willing 

 to pay the necessary price. There are many naturalists who would 

 gladly make the studies and prepare popular reports, provided the 

 facilities were given them tO' do the work. An understanding and 

 a reasonable expectation from each group would lead to better mu- 

 tual understanding and appreciation. For my own part I feel that 

 the public is really getting a generous supply of help compared with 

 what they have put into such work. Too often we expect to harvest 

 where we have not planted. 



The New York State College of Forestry and its Roosevelt Wild 

 Life Forest Experiment Station have definitely experimented with 

 popular bulletins on birds for park and forest visitors. One has 

 been prepared for the Palisades Interstate Park, a second for the 

 Adirondack region — both by Silloway ('20a, '23) — and a third, by 

 Saunders ('23), for the new Allegany State Park south of Bufifalo. 

 Another very attractive type of handbook on birds, arranged 

 for use as one tours the Yellowstone National Park, is by M. P. 

 Skinner ('25), formerly Park Naturalist there. This author has 

 made a special study of the tourists' interests as well as of the 



