curacy of observation even
few naturalists can lay claim to. I mentioned the incident to him,
and he recalled it laughingly. He then took down a volume on the deer
family which he had himself had a share in writing, and pointed out
two mistakes in the naming of the pictures which had been overlooked.
The picture of the "white-tail in flight" was the black-tail of
Colorado, and the picture of the black-tail of Colorado showed the
black-tail of Columbia--the difference this time being seen in the
branching of the horns.

The President took us through his house and showed us his trophies of
the chase--bearskins of all sorts and sizes on the floors, panther and
lynx skins on the chairs, and elk heads and deer heads on the walls,
and one very large skin of the gray timber wolf. We examined the teeth
of the wolf, barely more than an inch long, and we all laughed at the
idea of its reaching the heart of a caribou through the breast by a
snap, or any number of snaps, as it has been reported to do. I doubt
if it could have reached the heart of a gobbler turkey in that way at
a single snap.

[Illustration: A YEARLING IN THE APPLE ORCHARD

From stereograph, copyright 1907, by Underwood & Underwood,
New York]

The President's interest in birds, and in natural history generally,
dates from his youth. While yet in his teens he published a list of
the birds of Franklin County, New York. He showed me a bird journal
which he kept in Egypt when he was a lad of fourteen, and a case of
three African plovers which he had set up at that time; and they were
well done.

Evidently one of his chief sources of pleasure at Sagamore Hill is the
companionship of the birds. He missed the bobolink, the seaside finch,
and the marsh wren, but his woods and grounds abounded in other
species. He knew and enjoyed not only all the more common birds, but
many rarer and shyer ones that few country people ever take note
of--such as the Maryland yellow-throat, the black and white creeper,
the yellow-breasted chat, the oven-bird, the prairie warbler, the
great crested flycatcher, the wood pewee, and the sharp-tailed finch.
He enjoyed the little owls, too. "It is a pity the little-eared owl is
called a screech owl. Its tremulous, quavering cry is not a screech at
all, and has an attraction of its own. These little owls come up to
the house after dark, and are fond of sitting on the elk's antlers
over the gable. When the moon is up, by choosing