With the hope that it may be the means of increasing the love of nature, and thereby adding to the joys of life, this little book is given to the public.
Laws for the preservation of birds and animals, more than any others, need behind them a sensitive public opinion. With this, the law itself is almost forgotten in its general observance, while without this support a breach of the law comes in time to take on something of virtue instead of crime. Whatever tends to spread the knowledge of nature, and consequently the love of it, makes it harder for the man who _kills_, either for the mere zest of it, for vanity or for purely commercial reasons, and thus each convert becomes, in a limited sense at least, a game warden.
To the lover of Nature, the whole animal and plant world is the quest. Unlimited time can be spent in photographing insects, birds' nests and birds, endeavoring to catch and display the butterfly on the particular plant from which it loves to extract the nectar, the bird's nest in the tree or the bush in its natural surroundings, the old setter on a staunch point among the stubble; thus by pictorial notes reproducing various events in natural history and creating an interest in the study of botany, entomology, and ornithology--in fact, preserving all the conditions that make up the attraction for outdoor recreation, which the American people so much need. By this indirect method many come to be so instructed in the rudiments of nature that they are led to see in life a myriad of interesting things which they could not otherwise enjoy, and the book of Nature, hitherto sealed to the hurrying multitude, becomes an open volume to those who, turning aside from the rush of modern life, bring to its reading a sympathetic mind and an ear attuned to catch the melodious voices, and so,
"This our life, exempt from public haunts, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything."
Afognak Island, 72 Akuton Pass, 76 Anecdotes: Father Duncan's story, 9 Indian legend of totem, 20 Primitive surgery, 58 Annette Island, 6 Aurora Borealis, 170
Barabara, Indian, 107 Baranoff Island, 28 Bath à la Wilderness, 128, 173, 174 Bay of Islands, 184, 221 Bear feeding, 57 at camp, 61 catching, 102 glacier, 62 grizzly, vitality of, 104 Kadiak, 81 size of, 116 trailing, 95, 98, 114, 117 Beaver, 189, 209, 217 Bee's nest, 148 Bell, Mr., 146 Benjamin Creek, 156 Berries, 30 blueberries, 150, 165 bunchberries, 212 partridge berries, 166 salmon-berries, 165 strawberries, 3, 30 Bidarka, 21, 116 Birch, 167, 203, 206, 211 Bird lime, 281 Birds: albatross, black-footed, 29 American golden-eye, 197, 319 American goldfinch, 277 American redstart, 278, 293-296 belted kingfisher, 305-309 blue-gray gnat-catchers, 274 bobwhite, 303, 314 brown thrasher, 298 Canada geese, 59 Canada jays, 207 cardinals, 248, 250 chewinks, 302 cliff swallows, 284 cormorants, 144 cowbird, 257, 261, 279 crane, sandhill, 183 crossbill, 179, 180 crows, 82, 118 cuckoo, yellow-billed, 303 eagles, 27, 82, 88, 111, 118 fish ducks, 50 flickers, 264, 298 "gony," 29 great horned owl, 240 great northern diver, 169 greater scaup-duck, 65 grouse, 169, 310, 313 Canada, 131 gulls, 52, 66, 70, 80, 140, 186, 218 harlequin ducks, 112 heron, great blue, 27 green, 268, 310 herring gulls, 94, 186 indigo bunting, 255 kingfisher, 203-216, 305, 310 kittiwakes, 109 loon, 170, 186, 188, 216 magpies, 86 merganser, 193, 216, 218 red-breasted, 50 Mother Carey's chick, 121 osprey, 216 phalaropes, 64 ptarmigan, 99, 104, 152, 158, 166 hawk, 159 quail, 314-316 ravens, 72 red-eyed vireo, 259-320 redpolls, 204 red-wing blackbird, 283 rose-breasted grosbeak, 271, 303 ruby-throated hummingbird, 275 ruffed grouse, 310-313 scarlet tanager, 266 sea-parrot, 91 snipe, 174 sparrow, song, 234, 286-288 white-crowned, 113 white-throated, 209 spotted sandpiper, 192 teal, 59 tern, Arctic, 109 white, 92 thistle-bird, 279 thrush, wood, 288 Wilson's, 196 titlark, 196 tree swallows, 213 tufted titmouse, 254 turtle doves, 318-320 whisky jack, 208 woodpeckers, downy, 277 red-headed, 296, 303 Birds, aquatic, 17 protection of, 321 Black flies, 190 Black snake, 291 Brooks, Alfred H., 2 Bruce, the Steamer, 181 Butterflies: red-spotted purple, 279 tiger swallow-tail, 214 Bydarky, The, 175