EDITORS CORNER. 



69 



the men referred to above said that after a 

 certain man had refused to subscribe he 

 went on to tell about some recent hunting 

 experiences and said jubilantly that on one 

 of these he saw a bunch of quails sitting un- 

 der a bush and killed 11 of them at one shot. 

 My friend said he told the man, after hear- 

 ing that story, that he did not wonder he 

 should refuse to subscribe for Recreation. 

 I can live mighty well without ever getting 

 a dollar from anv such swine as these. 



Mr. C. D. Sherwin, of Goshen, Ind., sub- 

 scribed for Recreation for '98. When his 

 subscription expired a renewal notice was 

 sent him, in the regular course of business. 

 He made the following endorsement on the 

 face of it and returned it to me: 



" Your unwarranted attacks on what you 

 term game hogs have lost friends for you 

 here. There are but few people here who 

 start out for a few days' snooting in a 

 palace car. Your business is run strictly in 

 the interest of those who can afford any- 

 thing. Yours, 



" C. D. Sherwin." 



I endorsed the document as follows and 

 sent it back to Mr. Sherwin: 



" From which it would seem the shoe fits 

 you_ Good-by." 



No decent sportsman objects to my at- 

 tacks on game hogs. It is only the other 

 kind who squeal. I shall do all I can to 

 save the game if I lose every friend I have 

 in the world. 



Mr. D. B. Wilson, Waterbury, Conn., 

 writes me he has a tract of 300 to 400 

 acres of wooded land on his estate, on which 

 foxes have become so numerous of late 

 that they are destroying the other game. 

 It would seem the sportsmen in the vicinity 

 of Waterbury should be mighty glad of a 

 chance to clean out these foxes, and I sug- 

 gest that anyone who* may be hankering 

 for some sport of that kind, and for a chance 

 to climb the hills and expand his lungs, 

 would do well to call on or write Mr. Wil- 

 son for further particulars. 



" Birds that Hunt and are Hunted " ; 

 Publisher's price, $2. With Recreation i 

 year, $2.50. " Bird Neighbors " ; Pub- 

 lisher's price, $2. With Recreation i year, 

 $2. Both books and Recreation, $4. 



Renewals and new subscriptions taken on 

 this offer. 



A 2 pound can of Laflin & Rand's cele- 

 brated smokeless powder, listed at $2, for 4 

 subscriptions to Recreation. You can 

 get these 4 subscriptions in half an hour 

 without interfering with your regular busi- 

 ness. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



MRS. WRIGHT'S BOOK ON OUR QUADRUPEDS. 



It is high time that American boys and 

 girls — and grown folks, also — should learn 

 something of the classification of our Amer- 

 ican quadrupeds. Our splendid mammalian 

 fauna is worthy of a thousand fold more at- 

 tention than it has thus far received from 

 our educators. Our school children are 

 taught almost everything save natural his- 

 tory; and generation after generation has 

 grown up in stupid ignorance of even the 

 elements of animal classification. North 

 America has 540 species of rodents, and 62,- 

 910,746 persons who do not even know what 

 a " rodent " is. Really, it is marvelous to 

 see how grossly ignorant of animal classifi- 

 cation well educated people can be, when 

 2 hours of serious study will yield to any 

 sensible adult a fairly clear understanding of 

 the orders of living mammals. 



Up to this time, it has been impossible to 

 induce any publisher to issue a general 

 hand-book on the quadrupeds of North 

 America. At last, however, the hoodoo 

 spell has been broken, and we have one gen- 

 eral work on that subject. Even though it 

 is elementary in its plan and scope, I say 

 "work" advisedly; for if there is any 

 writer who thinks he can write good four- 

 footed text for ignorant people without 

 " sweating blood," let him try it, just once. 

 Of all zoological composition, this is the 

 most difficult. 



" Four-Footed Americans " is a book to 

 be made much of; for any one who learns 

 its contents will have laid a good foundation 

 on which to build a comprehensive knowl- 

 edge of our living creatures that are best 

 worth knowing. The thread of story which 

 began to unwind in Mrs. Wright's " Citizen 

 Bird " runs through this companion vol- 

 ume, and upon : is hung mo?t skillfully a 

 series of facts and pictures which place be- 

 fore the reader about 72 conspicuous types 

 of American mammals. The species have 

 been chosen for the triple purpose of afford- 

 ing the reader a good understanding of the 

 different orders and families, of shov/ing 

 precisely where some of our most interest- 

 ing animals belong, and of furnishing a 

 fund of valuable information regarding their 

 character and habits. 



This book is a th roughly good and con- 

 scientious piece of work, and its only fault 

 is that in some places the story is a little too 

 prominent. It begins with a clear and easily 

 understood outline of the various classes of 

 the animal kingdom, an " Animal Tree," 

 and a " North American Mammal Tree," 

 showing the orders and leading families. 

 While doctors may differ regarding the 

 branches of the latter — and they will, to the 

 end of time — the fact remains that Mrs 

 Wright's tree is comprehensible even to tht 

 dullest mind, and will serve its purpose ad- 



