Historians of the Wild—of the denizens of fields and woods and
rivers—there are and have been, but in the majority of instances their
work has been confined to mere descriptions of the personalities of
birds and beasts and fish from the standpoint of the museum, rather
than from that of the interested, if unscientific, observer. Ernest
Thompson-Seton, however, naturalist and artist, has, through the medium
of his books, managed to so wed popular interest and scientific data
that the result is fascinating in the extreme. He has shown, too, that
to a man of talent there is always a new field to be discovered amid
the old ones, which, apart from all else, is a lesson that no one can
afford to ignore. Thompson-Seton was born in South Shields, England,
August 14, 1860. He is a descendant of the famous Setons of Scotland,
Thompson being a _nom de plume_. Coming to this country when a boy,
he at first lived in the backwoods of Canada and also had experiences
on the plains of the then far west. He was educated at the Toronto
collegiate institute and also at the Royal academy, London, England. In
1896 he married Grace, daughter of Albert Gallatin, of San Francisco.
His qualifications as a naturalist becoming known to the government
of Manitoba, he was made official naturalist therefor, subsequently
publishing works on the birds and mammals of that territory. He studied
art in Paris and was at one time one of the chief illustrators of
the Century dictionary. His works on natural history topics are well
known. Thompson-Seton is what may be called a psychological naturalist,
inasmuch as he analyzes the mentalities of his subjects. The results
are seen in such books as The Biography of a Grizzly, The Trail of the
Sand Hill Stag, Wild Animals I Have Known, etc.