PREFACE. vii 



thus compiled their writings. Pliny took from Aristotle, 

 others quote Pliny, and so on ; but it was reserved 

 for the age of printing to render their writings available 

 to the many, as well as to represent the creatures they 

 describe by pictures (" the books of the unlearned "), 

 which add so much piquancy to the text. 



Mine is not a learned disquisition. It is simply a 

 collection of zoological curiosities, put together to suit 

 the popular taste of to-day, and as such only should 

 it be critically judged. 



JOHN ASHTON. 



