PREFACE 



During these days of ceaseless conflict, anxiety and unrest 

 among men, when at times it begins to look as if "the Cau- 

 casian" really is "played out," perhaps the English-reading 

 world will turn with a sigh of relief to the contemplation of 

 wild animals. At all events, the author has found this diver- 

 sion in his favorite field mentally agreeable and refreshing. 



In comparison with some of the alleged men who now are 

 cursing this earth by their baneful presence, the so-called 

 "lower animals" do not seem so very "low" after all! As a 

 friend of the animals, this is a very proper time in which to 

 compare them with men. Furthermore, if thinking men and 

 women desire to know the leading facts concerning the intel- 

 ligence of wild animals, it will be well to consider them now, 

 before the bravest and the best of the wild creatures of the 

 earth go down and out under the merciless and inexorable 

 steam roller that we call Civilization. 



The intelligence and the ways of wild animals are large 

 subjects. Concerning them I do not offer this volume as an 

 all-in-all production. Out of the great mass of interesting 

 things that might have been included, I have endeavored to 

 select and set forth only enough to make a good series of 

 sample exhibits, without involving the general reader in a 

 hopelessly large collection of details. The most serious ques- 

 tion has been: What shall be left out? 



Mr. A. R. Spofford, first Librarian of Congress, used to 

 declare that "Books are made from books"; but I call the 

 reader to bear witness that this volume is not a mass of quo- 

 tations. A quoted authority often can be disputed, and for 

 this reason the author has found considerable satisfaction in 

 relying chiefly upon his own testimony. 



