I. A SURVEY OF THE FIELD. 



I 



THE LAY OF THE LAND 



THERE is a vast field of fascinating human interest, 

 lying only just outside our doors, which as yet has 

 been but little explored. It is the Field of Animal 

 Intelligence. 



Of all the kinds of interest attaching to the study of the 

 world's wild animals, there are none that surpass the study 

 of their minds, their morals, and the acts that they perform 

 as the results of their mental processes. 



In these pages, the term "animal" is not used in its most 

 common and most restricted sense. It is intended to apply 

 not only to quadrupeds, but also to all the vertebrate forms, — 

 mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fishes. 



For observation and study, the whole vast world of living 

 creatures is ours, throughout all zones and all lands. It is 

 not ours to flout, to abuse, or to exterminate as we please. 

 While for practical reasons we do not here address ourselves 

 to the invertebrates, nor even to the sea-rovers, we can not 

 keep them out of the background of our thoughts. The living 

 world is so vast and so varied, so beautiful and so ugly, so 

 delightful and so terrible, so interesting and so commonplace, 

 that each step we make through it reveals things different and 

 previously unknown. 



The Frame of Mind. To the inquirer who enters the 

 field of animal thought with an open mind, and free from the 

 trammels of egotism and fear regarding man's place in nature, 



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