IV. PREFACE. 



ticed the improvements which an enlarged system of agricul- 

 ture, supported by a noble spirit of emulation, has introduced 

 into all parts of the country. To these we may add that 

 most useful animal the Dog, the account of which forms a 

 conspicuous part of our history, and we trust will afford 

 some entertainment to those who are pleased with contem- 

 plating the various talents of that trusty servant and humble 

 companion of man. We have selected the most remarkable 

 of the different kinds, and have given faithful portraits of 

 them, drawn from the life. There are still others, not un- 

 worthy of attention, which might have been added; but to 

 have noticed all the variations and shades of difference ob- 

 servable in the canine race would have swelled our account, 

 already large, to an immoderate length, and have left us too 

 little room for others of equal importance, in a comprehen- 

 sive view of this part of the animal creation. 



Our attention has been directed in a particular manner to 

 the various instinctive powers of animals that hidden prin- 

 ciple, which actuates and impels every living creature to 

 procure its subsistence, provide for its safety, and propagate 

 its kind. To discover more and more of this unerring guide, 

 directing, the brute creation to their highest good, by the 

 simplest and most certain methods, is a pursuit worthy of the 

 most refined understanding, and leads us to contemplate the 

 wisdom and goodness of the adorable Author of Nature, who 

 " openeth His hand, and all things are filled with good/' 



It may perhaps be thought necessary to offer some apo- 

 logy for the evident want of proportion observable in the size 

 of the different animals a defect to which every work of 

 this kind must, in some measure, be liable. In adverting to 

 this, we found, that at whatever point, between the Elephant 

 and the Mouse, the scale were to be fixed, a great and un- 

 avoidable deficiency would be the consequence; we were 

 therefore obliged to relinquish a plan, which, so far from 

 being practicable, would have been the means of throwing 

 the whole into irregularity and confusion. 



