Wild Animals You Would Like to Know
Editors' Note to Mother and Teacher.—Wild animals have a wonderful fascination for children. About the traits, habits and homes of those most commonly to be seen in menageries and city park zoos, they never tire of hearing. Ample accounts of these animals, giving the classifications and main facts by which they may be identified, are to be found under the appropriate headings in the body of this work. Those accounts should always be read first. The pictures should be studied, and drawings and clay models of the animals made. In no other way than by the graphic arts, can the facts of life be so firmly and accurately impressed on a child's mind. The child is then ready for peeps into the wonderland of the intimate life of wild creatures. Unconsciously, and with the keenest interest, he absorbs a great deal of geography, zoology and related subjects, and sees the animals in their relation to human beings, their place in literature and folklore, and their claim on his sympathy.
I. Big Brother Bear
- W'y, wunst they wuz a Little Boy went out
- In the woods, to shoot a Bear—an* he
- Wuz goin' along—an' goin' along, you know.
- An' purty soon he heerd somefin go "Wooh!"-
- 'ist that-a-way—"Woo-ooh!"
- —James Whitcomb Riley.
You ought to get Mr. Riley's poems and read the bear story that little Alex, who couldn't talk plain, but who knew all about bears, ' 'ist maked up his-own-se'f."
Did you ever think why little American boys and girls know more stories about bears, and are more interested in bears than they are in any other wild animals? It must be because white children and bears are such old acquaintances. They have always lived near neighbors, both in the old world and in the new. In northern countries, where white people live, there never have been any lions or other big, flesh-eating beasts, so Mr. Bear has had the woods and
