PREFACE. 



Illustrations are like windows to the house of knowledge. 

 They let light in upon the understanding and they facilitate 

 the outlook upon truth and beauty. To illustrate is to help 

 one sense by the use of another, to reason by analogy and 

 to teach the unknown by the known. When definition fails, 

 illustration often carries conviction, and the most successful 

 teachers are those who make the best use of sound and 

 telling illustrations. How many lessons would have been 

 wholly forgotten by us, but for the illustrations which made 

 their meanings clear and left their truths for ever in our 

 minds ? 



The book of nature is full of illustrations which help the 

 understanding of the book of life, and no illustrations are 

 more valuable and fascinating, whether as revelations of the 

 order and habits of nature herself, or as parallels and para- 

 bles, full of suggestive application to the social and moral 

 life of humanity, than those afforded by the study of Nat- 

 ural History. 



To gather into a convenient volume Illustrative Anecdotes 

 of Natural History, which shall throw light upon the study 

 of Animal Life, for those pursuing it for its own sake, and 

 help to the understanding of Nature herself is the primary 

 object of this work, while it is hoped that it may serve a 



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