PREFACE. 



I AM free to confess that, were our animals as stupid 

 and machine-like as many observers represent them and 

 as certain would-be critics assume them to be, I should 

 not feel tempted to spend my days in a series of more 

 or less protracted outings continuing through the year, 

 nor look upon experiment as one whit better than a 

 pleasing pastime. But the beasts and birds, reptiles, 

 fishes, and " such small deer " are nothing of the kind, 

 and their intelligence still not only offers a wide field 

 for study, but adds a zest to every contemplative stroll. 



Strictly inanimate nature is, for me, far less exhila- 

 rating. " Antres vast and deserts idle " figure better in 

 poetry than in fact, and the lifeless wastes of the world 

 offer little that has roused my enthusiasm so promptly 

 as some familiar field with its scattered sparrows, and 

 perchance a bluebird on the rude worm fence ; and as 

 yet I have no fear that at last there will be no novelty 

 and my well-tramped fields will pall. 



"To-morrow they will wear another face." 



