PREFACE 



FROM various quarters the suggestion has come to me 

 to prepare a work on Comparative Psychology, as it 

 was known that this subject has engaged my attention 

 in no small measure for many years. It would be 

 easy enough to collect an additional number of 

 anecdotes of animals, and pen some reflections on 

 them. It might be possible to gather together some 

 accounts of the doings of animals of undoubted 

 accuracy and examine these critically, but all this 

 has been done, and we must now enter on another 

 stage that of exact, systematic observation and ex- 

 periment. There are, however, many methods by 

 which so broad a science as Comparative Psychology 

 can be advanced, and I hope no word I may write 

 may suggest any of those narrow views for which even 

 scientific men are sometimes to be held responsible. 

 There are many points of view, and it will be well 

 to gather observations and opinions from every proper 

 source available. 



My own views as to the nature and scope of Com- 

 parative Psychology will best be gathered from the 



