FOR PARENTS. 



design of this book can be stated in a few words, 

 namely, to interest children in the study of natural his- 

 tory, and of physical and political geography. 



I. It would be hard to find a child indifferent to stories 

 about animals. The number of books, both systematic and 

 unsystematic, to which this fact has given rise is very large ; 

 but the enormous progress in zoological science has been 

 fatal to the survival of most of them. Children of a prior 

 generation had their curiosity about the brute creation sat- 

 isfied by White's Selbome and Bewick's Quadrupeds; and 

 the former classic is even now reprinted in popular editions, 

 with illustrations which may and do attract the young. But 

 adults, and even scholars, alone can enjoy Selborne to the 

 full; while not merely is the Quadrupeds out of print and 

 difficult to procure, but its text is too antiquated to be use- 

 fully put before a child. Its incomparable illustrations de- 

 serve a perpetual lease of life. The first section of the pres- 

 ent compilation, entitled "Animals," though written more 



