by David L. Witt | Aug 15, 2024 | Seton Essays
Sketch and plan of a Muskrat den at Cos Cob, Conn., July, 1905, from Life-Histories of Northern Animals, 1909 What’s in a name? Apparently, the great Carl Linnaeus believed the Muskrat closely related to beavers, placing the creatures together in the genus Castor...
by David L. Witt | Jul 13, 2024 | Seton Essays
The Singing Mouse, drawing by Ernest Thompson Seton, Academy for the Love of Learning Deer mice and house mice take turns trying to invade my house. This ends badly for them (dispatching traps, never poison) but to give them their due, they keep trying. Seton...
by David L. Witt | Jul 1, 2024 | Seton Essays
Family of Beavers, Ernest Thompson Seton This is an excerpt from Life-Histories of Northern Animals published in 1910. Seton noted that the beaver has “a massive skull of the general squirrel-type.” While he did not say so, this similarity led biologists to...
by David L. Witt | Jun 6, 2024 | Seton Essays
Undated squirrel drawing by Seton (not associated with the article) The great migrations of the world: The Wildebeest of Tanzania. The Caribou of Alaska. The Squirrels of New York. (!?) Perhaps not exactly. In between the publication of Life-Histories of Northern...
by David L. Witt | Feb 28, 2024 | Seton Essays
Woodchuck details, Ernest Thompson Seton (This is an excerpt from Life-Histories of Northern Animals by Ernest Thompson Seton. Published in October 1909, Seton chronicled the lives of 60 species in a massive two-volume work including ecological and behavioral...
by David L. Witt | Dec 12, 2023 | Seton Essays
Photos of Sprague’s Pipit (The Cornell Lab from their website) The survival of Sprague’s Pipit (called the “Missouri Skylark” by Seton) depends upon the existence of virgin prairie. Once found from Mexico to Manitoba, it is now very rare due to habitat destruction....