PREFACE. Yll 



utterances, songs and cries ; their actions, in ease and 

 under the pressure of circumstances ; their affections 

 and passions, towards their young, towards each 

 other, towards other animals, towards man : their 

 various arts and devices, to protect their progeny, to 

 procure food, to escape from their enemies, to de- 

 fend themselves from attacks ; their ingenious re- 

 sources for concealment ; their stratagems to over- 

 come their victims ; their modes of bringing forth, 

 of feeding, and of training, their offspring; the re- 

 lations of their structure to their wants and habits ; 

 the countries in which they dwell ; their connexion 

 with the inanimate world around them, mountain or 

 plain, forest or field, barren heath or bushy dell, open 

 savanna or wild hidden glen, river, lake, or sea : — 

 this would be indeed zoology, i. e. the science of living 

 creatures. And if we have their portraits, let us have 

 them drawn from the life, while the bright eyes are 

 glancing, and the flexible features express the emo- 

 tions of the mind within, and the hues, so often fleet- 

 ing and evanescent, exist in their unchanged reality, 

 and the attitudes are full of the elegance and grace 

 that free, wild, nature assumes. 



The author would not be misunderstood. He is 

 far from despising the labours of those who describe 

 and catalogue the specimens that travellers send to 

 the cabinets of Europe. Careful and minute descrip- 

 tions, accurate admeasurements, and distinctive names 



