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HE work which the publisher now offers to the public 

 is intended to be instructive as well as entertaining, 

 accurate as well as popular. A knowledge of zoology 

 can be imparted without the use of technical language ; 

 in fact, the conventional vocabulary must be in great 

 part discarded by any one who seeks to address the 

 general public rather than a select band of scientific 

 lents. And it is to the general public, to our clergymen, our 

 men of business, our workingmen, and especially to our young 

 people, that this Natural History is dedicated. In a work with such 

 an aim, a formal inventory and technical description of the manifold 

 forms of animal existence would be evidently out of place; instead of 

 investigations of the lifeless organism there must be accounts of the 

 living creature ; instead of scientific terminology there must be language 

 plain, clear, and dii-ect ; the information which the volume seeks to 

 impart must be conveyed in a manner easy to comprehend, easy to 

 remember, and generally attractive. To the attractiveness of this work 

 the numerous beautifully-colored plates with which it is illustrated con- 

 tribute in no ordinary degree. The designs are original and have been 

 prepared at unusual expense. They represent in a more vivid and 

 striking way than mere words can depict, the shape, the habits and the 

 habitations of the animals, as well as the colors with which Nature has 

 adorned them and the attitudes which most distinctly characterize them. 

 Johnson's Household Book of Nature aims, as has been said, to 

 be interesting. It is hoped, however, that it will be more than a mere 

 readable book of entertainment, and that it will not allay, but stimulate 



