INTRODUCTION 



IN the pleasant days when we have not long begun to look on 

 a wonderful world peopled with beings great and small all 

 living their busy lives after their own fashion, most of us 

 are in some respects nearer to understanding the ways of the 

 myriad creatures which share the earth with us than we have 

 ever the good fortune to be in later years. Before a sparrow 

 becomes for us "only" a sparrow, or we have been taught to 

 associate the word "horrid" with a score of interesting and often 

 beautiful little animals which we meet day by day, the things 

 that happen in animal-land are not passed over with unseeing 

 eyes ; the earth is filled with romance, and we live in a true 

 fairyland. From a few fortunate ones the spell is never lifted ; 

 for them its fascination grows stronger with time, and the story 

 becomes constantly more engrossing, for it is one whose secret, 

 though ever unfolding, can never be wholly .revealed. 



5 At first, more especially, it is our constant joy to recognize 

 everywhere in the animal world resemblances to man , and 

 each of us reads the doings of its inhabitants according to 

 his own fancy. So long as we try to see truly what is taking 

 place, we may permit ourselves to be reminded of similarities 

 between the doings of animals and our own ; but we must 

 be careful not to attribute human motives and reason where 

 they have no existence. That some animals can reason in 

 what seems a very human way is beyond doubt, but the 

 very cleverest of them has not advanced as far as the first 

 savage who sharpened a stick to dig with or to use as a 

 weapon. On the other hand, animals are born with the skill 

 to do the things which are necessary for their existence, while 

 man is born with little more than a greater or less capacity 

 for learning. If we would spin or weave, we must learn to do 



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