INTRODUCTION xxix 



the boundary should be maintained openly and visibly. In books 

 for children, especially, fantastic imaginings should not be offered 

 as serious facts; but such stories as "Raggylugg," "Redruff," and 

 "Krag," by Mr. Ernest T. Seton, deserve to live forever. "Moos- 

 wa" is a fiction story of animals that is one of the best of its kind. 



The most marvellous doings of wild animals are to be found in 

 books and newspapers. Only in books do porcupines roll down 

 steep hills in order to gather dead leaves upon their quills, and 

 thereby be able to do more wonderful things. Only in books do 

 kingfishers catch fish, carry them a mile or less, and place them in a 

 brook in order to give their nestlings object lessons in ichthyology 

 and in the gentle art of angling. You or I may spend years in the 

 forests and fields, observing and collecting wild creatures, and see 

 only a very few acts of the wild folk which we can call wonderful. 

 But then, somehow, our animals rarely have been as large, or as 

 well educated, as those of some other observers. 



Try all questions of animal action and intelligence with the 

 touchstone of common-sense. Be not startled by the "discovery" 

 that apes and monkeys have "language"; for their vocabulary 

 is not half so varied and extensive as that of barn-yard fowls, whose 

 language many of us know very well. Take no stock in the syste- 

 matic and prolonged "duels" of wild animals who meet and fight 

 to the death, under Marquis of Queensberry rules. A fight be- 

 tween two wild animals is usually a very brief event, — so say re- 

 liable men who have seen them in the wilds, — and unless there is 

 an accidental death-lock of antlers, the vanquished party usually 

 shows his heels long before he is seriously wounded. 



Animal psychology is a most interesting study, and its pursuit 

 is now engaging the serious attention of scientific men. If the 

 general public could know the plain and simple basis on which they 

 are proceeding, this warning against the idealization of animals 

 would hardly be necessary. Men of science who study the minds of 

 animals do not idealize their subjects, or ascribe to them super- 



