INTRODUCTION. 



"When the interest attached to the higher orders of 

 the brute creation is brought in review for the pur- 

 pose of bestowing pre-eminence on one particular 

 s^pecies, Europeans, with few dissentients, will con- 

 sider them in relation to their utility for economic 

 purposes. They will see in them objects of aliment 

 and clothing ; the producers of the raw materials 

 for manufactures; they will think of navigation, 

 exports, and imports, and then conclude that sheep 

 and oxen are the most important animals to man. 

 It is, however, probable that a Western Asiatic, from 

 similar motives, would fix upon camels and drome- 

 daries ; a Nabob would point to his state elephant, 

 and a Tartar, an Arab, a soldier, and a jockey, would 

 unanimously claim the post of honour for the horse. 

 No arg-ument in favour of the Peruvian lama would 

 be admitted; and the poor alone might perhaps 

 muse upon the patient and hardy virtues of the ass. 

 None but the savage and the mere sportsman would 

 iirst think of the importance of the canine species. 



