INTRODUCTION. n 



playful, way to " another Spectator dog." 

 It might not then unnaturally have been 

 supposed that a person undertaking to edit 

 and reprint these stories would have found 

 a considerable number that showed signs 

 of being hoaxes. I may confess, indeed, 

 that I set out with the notion of forming 

 a sort of Appendix to the present work, 

 which should be headed " Ben Trovato," 

 in which should be inserted stories which 

 were too curious and amusing to be left 

 out altogether, but which, on the other 

 hand, were what the Americans call a little 

 " too tall " to be accepted as genuine. The 

 result of my plan was unexpected. Though 

 I found many stories in which the inferences 

 seemed strained or mistaken, and others 

 which contained indications of exaggeration, 

 I could find but two stories which could 

 reasonably be declared as only suitable for 

 a " Ben Trovato." I therefore suppressed 

 my heading. The truth is that the animal 

 stories are much more carefully sifted at 

 the Spectator office than our witty critics 

 and contemporaries will admit. No stories 



