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Library / Literature & Fiction

Wild Animals I Have Known

by Ernest Thompson Seton

Pages
about 187
Category
Literature & Fiction
Language
English
Reading time
3.4 h at 250 wpm
Start readingThe whole book, as cards or one word at a time. 1.9 h at 450 wpm in Read mode.

From the opening

Biography of a Grizzly Lives of the Hunted Wild Animals at Home Wild Animal Ways

Lobo, the King of Currumpaw Silverspot, the Story of a Crow Raggylug, the Story of a Cottontail Rabbit Bingo, the Story of My Dog The Springfield Fox The Pacing Mustang Wully, the Story of a Yaller Dog Redruff, the Story of the Don Valley Partridge

THESE STORIES are true. Although I have left the strict line of historical truth in many places, the animals in this book were all real characters. They lived the lives I have depicted, and showed the stamp of heroism and personality more strongly by far than it has been in the power of my pen to tell.

I believe that natural history has lost much by the vague general treatment that is so common. What satisfaction would be derived from a ten-page sketch of the habits and customs of Man? How much more profitable it would be to devote that space to the life of some one great man. This is the principle I have endeavored to apply to my animals. The real personality of the individual, and his view of life are my theme, rather than the ways of the race in general, as viewed by a casual and hostile human eye.

This may sound inconsistent in view of my having pieced together some of the characters, but that was made necessary by the fragmentary nature of the records. There is, however, almost no deviation from the truth in Lobo, Bingo, and the Mustang.

Lobo lived his wild romantic life from 1889 to 1894 in the Currumpaw region, as the ranchmen know too well, and died, precisely as related, on January 31, 1894.

Bingo was my dog from 1882 to 1888, in spite of interruptions, caused by lengthy visits to New York, as my Manitoban friends will remember. And my old friend, the owner of Tan, will learn from these pages how his dog really died.

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