Peter Rabbit had always supposed that his cousin, Jumper the Hare, was the only near relative he possessed. When Jenny Wren mentioned a cousin of his in the Sunny South who was almost as fond of the water as Jerry Muskrat, Peter refused to believe it, for you know he hates the water himself. But when he had hunted up Old Mother Nature and she had said that it was true, Peter became possessed of a great desire to know all about his own family, and the families of his four-footed neighbors.

So it came about that every morning just at sun-up Old Mother Nature taught school in the Green Forest. It began with just Peter Rabbit and Jumper the Hare, but it grew from day to day as news of the interesting things being learned there spread though the Green Forest and over the Green Meadows.

This is a companion volume to "The Burgess Bird Book For Children," which has had such a wonderful reception since its publication. It is written in the same vein, a story book which is at the same time an authoritative handbook on the land animals of America, so describing them and their habits that they will be instantly recognized when seen. Every child, and not a few adults will delight in going to school to Old Mother Nature with Peter Rabbit and his friends.

From the dust jacket

This book is offered merely as an introduction to the four-footed friends, little and big, which form so important a part of the wildlife of the United States and Canada. There has been no attempt to describe or classify sub-species. The purpose of this book is to acquaint the reader with the larger groups - orders, families, and divisions of the latter, so that typical representatives may readily be recognized and their habits understood. I offer it to the children of America, conscious of its shortcomings yet hopeful that it will prove of some value in acquainting them with their friends and mine - the animals of field and wood, of mountain and desert, in the truest sense the first citizens of America.From the Preface