INTRODUCTORY. 3 



natural-history knowledge from this point of view, because it 

 would lead us to seek the beauties of natural objects, instead of 

 trusting to chance to force them on our attention. To a person 

 uninstructed in natural history, his country or sea-side stroll is 

 a walk through a gallery filled with wonderful works of art, 

 nine-tenths of which have their faces turned to the wall. Teach 

 him something of natural history, and you place in his hands a 

 catalogue of those which are worth turning round. Surely our 

 innocent pleasures are not so abundant in this life that we can 

 afford to despise this or any other source of them. We should 

 fear being banished for our neglect to that limbo, where the 

 great Florentine tells us are those who during this life ' wept 

 when they might be joyful.' " 



Some of the species described have a very limited range 

 in our country at present, the Deer, for example, being re- 

 stricted as wild animals to-day to the Scottish mountains and 

 glens and the West Country moors, but even these may be 

 studied as tolerably free animals in the New Forest, Epping 

 Forest, and in many parks such as those at Windsor and 

 Richmond, as well as in private domains. To the Deer we 

 must add the Wild Cat, the Pine Marten, and the Alpine Hare 

 as mammals that must be sought in special restricted areas ; 

 but most of the others may be reckoned to be met with, sooner 

 rather than later, in our country rambles. 



In view of the practice usual in natural histories of arranging 

 the vertebrate animals in a series with the Birds separating the 

 Mammals from the Reptiles, it may at first sight appear incon- 

 gruous to bring the latter classes together as we have done ; but 

 to the present writer the fitness of this arrangement is quite 

 clear. It is widely held that the Mammalia the highest class 

 of vertebrates, and therefore the most complex of all animals 

 have been evolved from an extinct group (Theromorpha) of 

 Reptiles, whose remains are found in strata of the Permian and 

 Jurassic Periods. There are, it is true, similar evidences 



