No literate person can listen to a skylark over an English
meadow without hearing in its notes the melodies of Chaucer
and Shelley. As the Southwest advances in maturity of mind
and civilization, the features of the land take on accretions
from varied interpreters.
It is not necessary for an interpreter to write a whole
book about a feature to bring out its significance. We need
more gossipy books--something in the manner of _Pinon
Country_ by Haniel Long (Duell, Sloan and Pearce, New
York, 1941), in which one can get a swift slant on Billy the
Kid, smell the pinon trees, feel the deeply religious attitude
toward his corn patch of a Zuni Indian. Roy Bedichek's
chapters on the mockingbird, in _Adventures with a Texas
Naturalist_, are like rich talk under a tree on a pleasant patch
of ground staked out for his claim by an April-voiced
mockingbird. In _The Voice of the Coyote_ I tried to compass the
whole animal, and I should think that the "Father of Song-
Making" chapter might make coyote music and the night
more interesting and beautiful for any listener. Intelligent
writers often interpret without set purpose, and many books
under various categories in this _Guide_ are interpretative.
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