Mr. McKinley, succeeded to the Presidential chair.

Of the Presidents of the United States not a few have been sportsmen,
and sportsmen of the best type. The love of Washington for gun and dog,
his interest in fisheries, and especially his fondness for horse and
hound, in the chase of the red fox, have furnished the theme for many a
writer; and recently Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Harrison have been more or
less celebrated in the newspapers, Mr. Harrison as a gunner, and Mr.
Cleveland for his angling, as well as his duck shooting proclivities.

It is not too much to say, however, that the chair of the chief
magistrate has never been occupied by a sportsman whose range of
interests was so wide, and so actively manifested, as in the case of
Mr. Roosevelt. It is true that Mr. Harrison, Mr. Cleveland, and
Mr. McKinley did much in the way of setting aside forest reservations,
but chiefly from economic motives; because they believed that the
forests should be preserved, both for the timber that they might yield,
if wisely exploited, and for their value as storage reservoirs for the
waters of our rivers.

The view taken by Mr. Roosevelt is quite different. To him the
economics of the case appeal with the same force that they might have
for any hard-headed, common sense business American; but beyond this,
and perhaps, if the secrets of his heart were known, more than this,
Mr. Roosevelt is influenced by a love of nature, which, though
considered sentimental by some, is, in fact, nothing more than a
far-sightedness, which looks toward the health, happiness, and general
well-being of the American race for the future.

As a boy Mr. Roosevelt was fortunate in having a strong love for nature
and for outdoor life, and, as in the case of so many boys, this love
took the form of an interest in birds, which found its outlet in
studying and collecting them. He published, in 1877, a list of the
summer birds of the Adirondacks, in Franklin county, New York, and also
did more or less collecting of birds on Long Island. The result of all
this was the acquiring of some knowledge of the birds of eastern North
America, and, what was far more important, a knowledge of how to
observe, and an appreciation of the fact that observations, to be of any
scientific value, must be definite and precise.

In the many hunting tales that we have had from his pen in recent years,
it is seen that these two pieces of most important instruction acquired
by the bo