IXTRODUCTION. XIU 



to the tiniest insect tliat labours in its appointed 

 calling, and, to its utmost power, defends its young 

 to its little life. 



If I cannot iind aid from so wide a source of 

 inspiration, then ami ^^ poor indeed." But ^^my 

 mind does not fail me," therefore '^ I fear no fall," 

 and in full reliance on my theme, — a practical 

 naturalist, a sportsman, and a worshipper of Nature, 

 ■ — I invite the attention of the reading public, and 

 most of all the kind notice of her to Avliom I have 

 dedicated this work, the graceful owner of a heart 

 which to me has never deviated in its friendly feel- 

 ings, nor altered with the change which constantly 

 perverts the world. 



When one of the objects at which I have aimed 

 in the following pages is to remove from the human 

 mind a causeless apprehension of dreadful death, 

 which often tends to bring about the very result 

 from which the nervous mind most shrinks, surely 

 that attempt may ask a graceful patronage, and 

 meet a kind reception from the gentler sex.* When^ 



■^ See the result of the inquest by the Liverpool Coroner on the 

 body of James CuUen, as reported in the Macclesfield Coicrier, 

 of the 9th of May. A doctor who had been called in claimed this 

 death to have arisen from " hydrophobia," but the 2^ost-mortem 

 examination gave the result of ''died from an ulcer in the throat." 



