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experience: a bird builds a nest purely by instinct and is not taught the skills required. Rev. Long provided many examples, supposedly from his experience, to cast doubt on that prevailing wisdom, suggesting that in fact animals did learn, and each could become individuals within their species. Some of the more famous observations were that kingfishers would catch fish in a river and then drop them into small pools so their offspring could practice catching the same fish but in an easier environment. He also chronicled a woodcock that made a "splint" for its broken leg. He also wrote of foxes that rode on the backs of sheep to escape hunters and porcupines curling into balls and rolling down hills.
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photographed forays into nature. He went so far to state
Roosevelt "never met an animal he didn't kill." After a couple months back and forth in the Stamford and national papers, Rev. Long said that "while obviously we cannot settle this through the media, I invite President Roosevelt anytime to Stamford to settle this like men." Roosevelt never accepted his invitation.
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Rev. Long's books found a large audience and were even issued in schools under the title of The Wood Folk Series. However, his findings and observations clashed with the prevailing scientific wisdom of animal behavior, which believed animals behaved purely on instinct, and could not learn from
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The local
Stamford paper chronicled the feud with "our dashing Rev. Long". Rev. Long would counter that you cannot "understand nature when you have a gun on your hip, ride on top of a wagon or horseback, and have a crowd of twenty with you," taking aim at Teddy Roosevelt's much publicized and
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Historian Ralph H. Lutts has argued that Long was "an experienced woodsman and close observer of nature" who did not intentionally fabricate his observations but sometimes misinterpreted what he saw. Long rejected
Darwinism and the idea of
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All this led to a belief that Rev. Long (and others) were anthropomorphizing animal behavior, blurring the lines between the animal world and humans. This came to a head when
President Teddy Roosevelt's naturalist adviser,
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of the early 1900s. Ultimately
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As a naturalist, he would leave
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110:(3 April 1867 – 1952) was an American writer, naturalist and minister. He lived and worked in
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A Little
Brother to the Bear and Other Animal Studies. Wood Folk Series Book V
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School of the Woods: Some life studies of animal instincts and animal training
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201:. He believed that all animal minds were reflections of God and relied on
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Wood-folk
Comedies: The Play of Wild-Animal Life on a Natural Stage
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The Making of Zimri Bunker: A Story of
Nantucket in the Early Days
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How
Animals Talk: And Other Pleasant Studies of Birds and Beasts
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himself had Rev. Long's books taken from all school libraries.
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Whose Home Is the Wilderness: Some Studies of Wild Animal Life
393:(1904) 178pp. (shortened version of the 280pp. 1903 edition)
156:, and many others. His earlier books were illustrated by
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The Spirit of the Wild: Observations in the Animal World
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He wrote of these wilderness experiences in the books
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A Little Brother to the Bear and Other Animal Studies
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482:The Nature Fakers: Wildlife, Science and Sentiment
407:Northern Trails Book II Wood Folk Series Book VII
397:Northern Trails Book 1. Wood Folk Series Book VI
342:(1905), 390pp., was reissued in two volumes as:
315:Mother Nature: A Study of Animal Life and Death
317:(1923), illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull
311:(1920), illustrated by Charles Livingston Bull
484:. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 1990.
458:Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, Volume 1
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125:and Cesca, to travel to "the wilderness" of
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553:20th-century American non-fiction writers
285:Brier-Patch Philosophy, by "Peter Rabbit"
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305:(1919), illustrated by Charles Copeland
293:(1907), illustrated by Charles Copeland
287:(1906), illustrated by Charles Copeland
281:(1905), illustrated by Charles Copeland
275:(1903), illustrated by Charles Copeland
269:(1903), illustrated by Charles Copeland
263:(1903), illustrated by Charles Copeland
257:(1902), illustrated by Charles Copeland
251:(1901), illustrated by Charles Copeland
245:(1901), illustrated by Charles Copeland
239:(1901), illustrated by Charles Copeland
233:(1900), illustrated by Charles Copeland
227:(1899), illustrated by Charles Copeland
160:; two later ones were illustrated by
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558:American Congregationalist ministers
221:(1899), illustrated by B. Rosenmeyer
329:(1957), illustrated by Ray Houlihan
323:(1956), illustrated by Ray Houlihan
583:20th-century American male writers
578:Writers from Stamford, Connecticut
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573:American male non-fiction writers
504:Works by or about William J. Long
57:North Attleborough, Massachusetts
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409:(1908) 158pp. (same content as
399:(1908) 128pp. (same content as
297:Outlines of English Literature
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548:19th-century American writers
460:. Continuum. pp. 1172-1173.
436:William J. Long and his book
411:Stories from Northern Trails
352:Stories from Northern Trails
67:1952 (aged 84–85)
519:(public domain audiobooks)
114:as a minister of the First
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454:Nature Fakers Controversy
183:nature fakers controversy
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513:Works by William J. Long
495:Works by William J. Long
452:Lutts, Ralph H. (2008).
116:Congregationalist Church
568:American nature writers
401:Wayeeses the White Wolf
346:Wayeeses the White Wolf
162:Charles Livingston Bull
199:struggle for existence
112:Stamford, Connecticut
87:Ways of the Wood Folk
563:American naturalists
431:Who's who in America
379:Secrets of the Woods
249:Secrets of the Woods
32:Long as depicted by
385:Wood Folk at School
327:Wings of the Forest
261:Wood Folk at School
237:Beasts of the Field
154:Wood Folk at School
108:William Joseph Long
45:William Joseph Long
456:. In Bron Taylor.
273:Following the Deer
187:Theodore Roosevelt
146:Wood-folk Comedies
499:Project Gutenberg
367:Ways of Wood Folk
225:Ways of Wood Folk
207:animal psychology
138:Ways of Wood Folk
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508:Internet Archive
480:Lutts, Ralph H.
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361:Wood Folk Series
243:Fowls of the Air
158:Charles Copeland
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54:3 April 1867
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543:1952 deaths
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433:, cited in
168:Controversy
131:Nova Scotia
34:The Bookman
532:Categories
475:References
72:Occupation
50:1867-04-03
418:Footnotes
517:LibriVox
334:Reissues
506:at the
203:empathy
36:in 1907
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440:, p. 3
387:(1903)
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369:(1899)
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75:Writer
59:, U.S.
127:Maine
462:ISBN
123:Lois
64:Died
42:Born
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