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Things to Know and Do 267 all to study because they are so seldom seen. Partly due to man's endless pursuit, the wild fourfoots are nearly all nocturnal now; but they are there, and far more numerous than you would Imagine. If you live in New York City, for example, you may be sure that within five miles of the City Hall you can find twenty wild quadrupeds living their lives as they always did. Thus, there are muskrats along the Bronx and Harlem rivers in the salt marshes; there are red, gray, and flying squirrels, as well as chip- munks, in most of the parks. There are plenty of woodchucks in Westchester County, although I do not know of any within the five-mile radius. Of course, there are deermice and short-tailed field mice, and jumping mice in most of the large parks or along the Jersey shore of the Hudson; and where there are mice there are weasels, and where there are weasels there are mink. The cottontail rabbit is common in some of the large parks and in most of the near woodlands, and there are at least three species of shrew and mole within the limits. If we go a little farther into Westchester County or Jersey, we shall enter the region of the skunk, the fox, the common deer, the coon, and the possum. So that the New York naturalist has a large opportimity among the quadrupeds; and the resident of Chicago, Boston, or Philadel- phia is just as well oflF; while, of course, the country girl has all the world before her. But we seldom see the things, how are we to know that they are there? By the tracks chiefly. The mud, the dust, or the snow will tell next morning much about the creature that passed in the night, and in time, about all that dwell near by. "Life Histories of Northern Animals," by Ernest Thompson Seton, is the only book that gives a full account of the conmion animals and their tracks; but a good book on Tracks and Track- ing has been published by J. Brunner. The diflficulties in the way of the student of mammals are per- haps the largest of all, but the rewards are as great; and every skull, every skin, every good track drawing, is a Uttle victory that will give you pleasure to see as long as you live. Insects are easily studied and preserved. A collection of butterflies, made according to instruction in the "Butterfly Book," Doubleday, Page & Company, is easily begun; wblk beetles and other orders of bugs, if less interesting, are yet more easily made. In general, to those who would know the wild things: Keep a