8 INTRODUCTION 



search for some lost article we declare that our task is 

 like looking for a needle in a haystack. In dealing with 

 the multitudinous animal forms, if left entirely to our 

 own devices, we should speedily be in a state of absolute 

 bewilderment. The number alone would fill us with 

 doubts concerning our ability to count them ; and their 

 astounding variety would convince us of the impossibility 

 of sorting them out so as to obtain even an elementary 

 grasp of our subject. Fortunately, the pleasant paths 

 constructed for us by the naturalists are open to all. If 

 we keep a sharp look-out for the finger-posts and the 

 milestones we shall have a pleasant journey, and arrive 

 at our destination with a load of valuable information, 

 which it has been a pleasure to gather, and which it will 

 be a happiness to store up in our minds. 



For a brief space we will survey the great globe upon 

 which we have our being. It consists of quite fifty 

 million square miles of land and nearly three times that 

 expanse of water. Yet by a knowledge of geography we 

 can fix the position of a tiny village, even though it be 

 in some almost inaccessible spot in the heart of a savage 

 country. The navigator, by the use of his charts and 

 the compass and sextant, can determine the position of 

 his vessel, when sailing the trackless ocean, with greater 

 ease than a Londoner can sometimes find his way in 

 the maze of streets in his own city. 



In the world at large are two great divisions, the Eastern 

 and the Western Hemispheres. In one of these are four 

 continents, and in the other only one. Continents are 

 divided into countries, which are again divided into states 

 and provinces, and in the case of our own land into still 

 smaller portions called counties. Counties in their turn 

 are made up of parishes, villages, and towns. 



Before setting out upon our journey into the ways 

 and byways of the animal world we must take a bird's-eye 

 view of it, the better to observe our bearings. If we 

 exercise a little care we shall be able to note its divisions 

 and subdivisions the classes, orders, sub-orders, sections, 

 groups, and families a knowledge of which will afford 

 us invaluable assistance on our way. 



