OP. This is not only the richest and justest
book published on the grizzly; it is among the best books of
the language on specific mammals. Wright had a passion for
bears, for their preservation, and for arousing informed
sympathy in other people. Yet he did not descend to
propaganda. _His The Black Bear_, London, n.d., is good but no
peer to his work on the grizzly. Also OP.
_29_
Coyotes, Lobos, and Panthers
I SEPARATE COYOTES, lobos, and panthers from the mass of
animals because they, along with bears, have made such an
imprint on human imagination. White-tailed deer are far more
common and more widely dispersed. Men, women also, by the tens
of thousands go out with rifles every fall in efforts to get
near them; but the night-piercing howl and the cunning ways of
the coyote, the panther's track and the rumor of his scream
have inspired more folk tales than all the deer.
Lore and facts about these animals are dispersed in many books
not classifiable under natural history. Lewis and Clark and
nearly all the other chroniclers of Trans-Mississippi America
set down much on wild life. James Pike's _Scout and Ranger_
details the manner in which, he says, a panther covered him up
alive, duplicating a fanciful and delightful tale in
Gerstaecker's _Wild Sports in the Far West_.
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