PREFACE 



rriOPSELL, in his ^ Foiirfooted Beasts/ says: 

 -^ " Bufc^ gentle reader^ as tliou art a man, so 

 thou must consider since Adam went out of Paradise, 

 there was never any that was able perfectly to 

 describe the universal conditions of all sorts of 

 beasts. . . . But for my part which write the 

 English story, I acknowledge that no man must look 

 for that at my hands, which I have not received 

 from some other/^ 



It is to those " others '^ that this little book is 

 entirely indebted, and it claims no originality. 



I know that time and opportunity are often want- 

 ing, for reading the larger standard works on 

 Natural History, to those engaged in the busy 

 routine of elementary teaching. It has been my 

 endeavour to put into this little book such informa- 

 tion about well-known animals, which, from my past 

 experience, I believe to be of greatest service in 

 interesting boys and girls in our Common British 

 Animals. 



Of those " others'^ to whom I am indebted, there 

 is a long list, but at the head of it stands Mr. J. G. 

 Millais, who gives such excellent descriptions and 

 pictures of our native beasts in his ^ British 

 Mammals.^ Mr. Millais' descriptions are the first- 



