PREFACE. 



NCOURAGED by the extremely kind 

 reception which has been awarded 



to my previous books, and by the 

 assurances, which have reached me 

 from the most unexpected sources, that 

 they have been found pleasant and profitable, I 

 am venturing to offer to the same indulgent 

 public a third collection of personal studies of 

 natural history. 



I recognise clearly that my little volumes have 

 been received with so much favour, because, in 

 spite of their simplicity and their lack of scientific 

 importance, they are, so far as they go, original. 

 That is to say, I have not much to give, but 

 what I have is of my own gathering. I have not 

 borrowed from other and cleverer writers, but 



