QL 

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TO THE READER. 



TV /T AN, being essentially a creature of habit, has come 

 *** to look upon what he is pleased to consider as the 

 inferior creation from one point of view only, and that in 

 most cases the narrow and selfish one of his own interests ; 

 thus his views are frequently lamentably prejudiced and 

 erroneous. The natural result has been that, while we 

 condone the failings of those creatures we make useful 

 to us, we ignore the virtues of other and much more 

 estimable ones. Thus, we admire the Bee because we 

 benefit by his labours, while we have not a good word 

 to say for the Wasp, who is, in point alike of industry and 

 intelligence, the Bee's superior. 



An attempt has been here made to view some of 

 the animal creation from a broader point of view, and to 

 endeavour to do justice to those whose good points have 

 been hitherto persistently ignored, and to take down others 

 from the pedestal upon which they have been placed, as 

 it would seem, unfairly and unreasonably. If some of the 



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