x PREFATORY NOTE 
the rats, field-mice, rabbits, gophers, ground-: 
squirrels, muskrats, etc.; the fox, the wolves 
and the fur-bearers; the deer and their kin— 
have been appreciated by very few; yet the 
harm done annually by one unchecked class of 
them entails a vast waste, while the benefit 
which might be obtained from another class is 
lost because their lives are little cared for and 
their capabilities for profitable exploitation al- 
most wholly neglected. 
It is hoped that this book will lead to a re- 
versal of this wasteful and negligent state of 
affairs; and that by its help the farmer’s 
friends among the wild animals about him may 
be encouraged and his foes subdued. Thus the 
account of the agriculturist with his four- 
footed competitors may be changed from a need- 
lessly heavy balance on the loss side, to one of 
profit, reckoned partly in savings and partly in 
‘‘new business.”’ 
My sources of statistical information, espe- 
cially for the West, have been largely reports 
of investigations conducted by the Biological 
Survey. These reports, it is true, have been 
widely distributed during the past ten years, 
