Part 30

Between the colored pictures and the written sketches the public can gain from this contribution a better idea of our principal mammals than from any other available publication. It should awaken a generally greater interest in our native mammals, and this will help build up a desire for the conservation of the harmless and useful species such as has resulted from the public education in relation to our bird life. On the other hand it is important to be able to distinguish those mammals, chiefly of the order Rodentia, which are thoroughly inimical to human interests. People at large must know how to cope with these enemies. It would seem that a full knowledge of the natural history of such animals is essential to determining the most successful means of controlling them and to applying these means properly to the varying conditions throughout the country. Nelson’s accounts of our injurious mammals are full of stimulative suggestions along these lines, and while the work as a whole can not be considered as an “economic” publication, its influence will go far to secure adequate popular consideration of these matters.

The species are taken up in groups, in so far as this can be done safely. Each biography, of which there are 119, is, as a rule, a composite applying to a number of near-related forms, thus simplifying matters of presentation, and avoiding repetition. A marked feature of the book is the degree of concentration attained; there is no trace of padding, and no room for baseless speculation, sentimentalizing or humanizing, such as characterize many current “nature” books. At the same time the style is animated and thoroughly entertaining, a gift of composition which Nelson has exercised in many preceding contributions. Here is an instance, unfortunately a rare one, in which a man who really knows the field has put out a popular book on a natural history subject.

Many are the portrayals which are evidently based on Nelson’s own personal field knowledge, some of them involving facts here for the first time made known to science. His account of the behavior of kangaroo rats in Lower California is particularly apt in illustration of the above statement.

During several nights I passed hours watching at close range the habits of these curious animals. As I sat quietly on a mess box in their midst ... [they] would forage all about with swift gliding movements, repeatedly running across my bare feet. Any sudden movement startled them and all would dart away for a moment, but quickly return.... They were so intent on the food [grains of rice put out for them] that at times I had no difficulty in reaching slowly down and closing my hand over their backs. I did this dozens of times, and after a slight struggle they always became quiet until again placed on the ground, when they at once renewed their search for food as though no interruption had occurred.... While occupied in this rivalry for food they became surprisingly pugnacious. If one was working at the rice pile and another rat or a pocket mouse approached, it immediately darted at the intruder and drove it away. The mode of attack was to rush at an intruder and, leaping upon its back, give a vigorous downward kick with its strong hind feet.... Sometimes an intruder, bolder than the others, would run only two or three yards and then suddenly turn and face the pursuer, sitting up on its hind feet like a little kangaroo. The pursuer at once assumed the same nearly upright position, with its fore feet close to its breast. Both would then begin to hop about watching for an opening. Suddenly one would leap at the other, striking with its hind feet, ... [producing] a distinct little thump and the victim rolled over on the ground. After receiving two or three kicks the weaker of the combatants would run away. The thump made by the kick when they were fighting solved the mystery which had covered this sound heard repeatedly during my nights at this camp.

The brilliantly coated paper used throughout this book although hard on sensitive eyes, is necessary to the handling of the halftone illustrations. The printing of both the colored and uncolored pictures in all the copies we have seen has been done with pronounced success. The color drawings by Fuertes are admirable and we are astonished at the success with which this noted bird artist was able to turn to mammals, the drawings of which in this contribution mark as far as we know his first efforts in the new field.

A critical reviewer might succeed in finding a number of small points to elaborate upon and of which to complain. For instance: It is trite to say that an Alaska brown bear is no more an _animal_ than is a house fly. Yet here we have the title, “Wild Animals of North America,” though there is an evident effort made in the subtitle to remedy the matter by using the expression, “_mammal kingdom_.” But here a taxonomic blunder is tumbled into! We can hardly believe that Nelson himself had anything final to say with regard to the title page of this book, but that the editor of the _National Geographic Magazine_ got in his work here in the belief so characteristic of editors of popular magazines that their public must be talked _down_ to.

But to pin the attention of the reader of this review upon such really minute defects would do violence to the facts in the case, which are that, according to the convictions of the reviewer, Nelson’s “Wild Animals of North America” is more uniformly accurate and at the same time replete with information along many lines than any preceding book on American mammals. And even more, it may be declared with confidence that this book is by far the most important contribution of a non-systematic nature that has appeared in its field in America.

JOSEPH GRINNELL

MUSEUM OF VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

[Transcriber’s Note:

Obvious printer errors corrected silently.

Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]