To mention even a quarter of the Nature books that have appeared during the past twenty-five years is impossible in this review. New England furnished many of note, such as the gracefully written and informative books of Bradford Torrey, largely reprinted from _The Atlantic Monthly_; the lively chapters on wild life near home by Dallas Lore Sharp; and the useful volumes by E.H. Forbush. From New York's presses were issued dozens of untechnical nature-books written by such well-known men as W.T. Hornaday, Frank Chapman, F.S. Matthews, W.P. Eaton, Ernest Ingersoll, and the various authors of the "Nature Library." A special note must be made of the series from the pen of Dr. C.C. Abbott, who, like Gilbert White and Thoreau, found on his farm near Trenton, New Jersey, material for half a dozen or more books, including "Rambles of a Naturalist About Home," "Upland and Meadow," and "Wasteland Wanderings." Dr. Henry McCook, a Philadelphia clergyman, wrote in his "Tenants of the Old Farm" a delightful story of the busy lives of ants and bees. All are models of the value of close and continuous observation of what is going on day by day under our eyes, and should be in every library. [Illustration: Copyright by Underwood & Underwood, N.Y. THEODORE ROOSEVELT In Yosemite National Park. Yosemite Falls in the background. In a career rich in endeavor and full of achievement, America's great citizen spent his first years and his last years as a naturalist] [Illustration: DR. WILLIAM T. HORNADAY Director of the New York Zoological Park since 1896, and author of many books and articles on natural history] One conspicuous reason for the rapid modern growth of the department of Nature literature was the facility in illustration effected by the invention of the half-tone and three-color processes of reproducing photographs and paintings, accompanied by the steady improvement and cheapening of the camera in its application to field-study. These inventions enabled publishers to issue books with accurate and beautiful pictures at a price previously impossible, so that almost everyone might possess them. In 1898 a somewhat startling innovation in Nature books appeared with the publication of Ernest Thompson Seton's "Wild Animals I Have Known," soon followed by others in the same style, such as the "Biography of a Grizzly," "The Sandhill Stag," et cetera. Mr. Seton is a field naturalist of experience, and a portrayer of animal life of unique distinction. His books are embellished with remarkable drawings, but they are essentially romances that humanize their animal heroes. "Because of his remarkably keen and quaint sense of humor and his power to draw and write," says an admirer, "no other animals are as real and lovable as his." [Illustration: Photograph by Press Illustrating Service Inc. LUTHER BURBANK