Volume Fourteen of Twenty-Three, Riverby Edition. John Burroughs emerged from an obscure boyhood in the Catskill Mountains to write more than thirty books, create the genre of the nature essay, and become the preeminent nature writer of his day. Through his essays in books and popular magazines, John Burroughs taught countless Americans to appreciate nature. He writes in the Preface to this volume that the reader will find this book to be quite a departure in certain ways from the tone and spirit of his previous books, especially in regard to the subject of animal intelligence. Contents: Ways of Nature; Bird-Songs; Nature with Closed Doors; The Wit of a Duck; Factors in Animal Life; Animal Communication; Devious Paths; What Do Animals Know?; Do Animals Think and Reflect?; A Pinch of Salt; The Literary Treatment of Nature; A Beaver's Reason; Reading the Book of Nature; and Gathered by the Way. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing .