•^^ Hnimate Creation. S:.^;^ 



kiT/'E have concluded to submit for public patronage a work with the above title, being a series 

 of exquisite Engravings representing the Animal World, executed witli great scientific 

 accuracy, and accompanied by full Descriptive Text, written in popular terms, so as to 

 delight and instruct the people. Anyone who has considered the subject must be at a loss to under- 

 stand why an ILLUSTRATED Natural History, comprehensive and at the same time popular, 

 has not before this been published in this country. Indeed any lover of animals who has visited the 

 great museums and zoological gardens and has had access to books of engravings in the public 

 libraries, could not fail to remark the wealth of material in existence devoted to this subject. Being 

 confirmed in our conviction of the desirability of such a work, we laid under contribution the best 

 existing authorities for the production of most perfect representations of all the more important 

 living creatures, and among the artists whose delineations will delight the reader, we may mention 

 Harrison Weir, Wolf, Coleman, Fr. Specht, and Mutzel. By far the majority of the engravings in 

 these volumes are from drawings made from the living animals, many at the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens in London, England. 



We purpose that our patrons shall be aided and interested in their study by such an array of 

 pictures as has never before embellished any Natural History. In numerous instances the engraving 

 is printed in oil-colors, and this portion of the illustrations has been taken charge of by Messrs. L. 

 Prang & Co., of Boston, who we believe rank foremost for high artistic results in this department of 

 printing. These Oleographs were copied under the superintendence of Mr. Prang from the renowned 

 " Tafeln " of " Brehm's Thierleben," so that they may be declared perfectly reliable. 



We sought competent advice from various sources as to the most suitable text that should ac- 

 company this panorama of handsome Engravings. It was found impossible to embody all the present 

 ideas of naturalists in a single work like this on account of the rapid advances and constant changes in 

 their knowledge of, and habits of thought respecting, the Animal World. And it seemed to us cor- 

 rect that the true object of Zoology is not to arrange, to number, and to ticket animals in a formal 

 inventory, but to inquire into their life-nature, and not simply to investigate the lifeless organism. 



What do we know of " Man " from the dissecting-room ? Is it not Man, the warrior, the states- 

 man, the poet, etc., that we are interested in ? With all veneration which attaches itself to those 

 who are the accredited possessors of abstruse learning, their inordinate use of phraseology detracts 

 too much, we fear, from the fascination that the study of the Animal World would otherwise yield, 

 and as we are not content to have our work restricted to a favored few, we thought the task placed 

 in our hands to be to keep the work free from a repellant vocabulary of conventional technicalities. 

 Our endeavor has been to find an author whose work would be noted for its fund of anecdote and 

 vitality rather than for merely anatomical and scientific presentation, and we arrived at the conclu- 

 sion that we could not do better than avail ourselves of the Rev. J. G. Wood's comprehensive work 

 — a work most popularly approved by speakers of the English language. It would be superfluous to 

 say one word concerning the standard character of his book, from the pages of which old and young 

 at the other side of the Atlantic have obtained so much instruction and rational amusement. Avoid- 

 ing the lengthened dissertations and minute classifications of specialists, he presents to his readers in 

 popular terms a complete treatise on the Animal Kingdom of all climes and countries. The one 

 objection that could be urged against it was, that animal life in America might be treated more fully 

 and American forms given more consideration. In order to obviate this drawback and to do full 

 justice to the creatures of our own country, we secured the aid of Dr. J. B. Holder, of the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History in New York, an undoubted American authority, who has adapted 

 Wood's work to American wants and given prominence to American forms of Animal life. 



The splendid work on Rodentia, by Allen, Coues, and others, will be fully consulted. The 

 valuable work on North American Birds, by Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, will be the guide in the 

 treatment of birds. The late arrangement of the classification and nomenclature of North American 

 Birds, by Mr. Ridgway, and the Committee on that subject of the Ornithologists' Union, will be 

 utilized in full. The arrangement of Mammals will be after the latest classification by Professor 

 Flower, of the Zoological Society of London. So that this will be the first popular Natural History 

 worthy of the name that has made its appearance here, which gives due and full recognition to the 

 animate world surrounding us. 



ITerms of publication. 



The extent of the work will be 6§ parts of 2§ pages, at the price of 25 cents each. The entire publication will 

 contain 34 Oleographs and 68 Full Page Engravings on Wood, besides many hundreds of exquisite Illustrations 

 interspersed through the text. The parts will be issued every two weeks, and are payable only as delivered. No 

 subscriber's name will be received for less than the entire work, and anyone removing, or not regularly supplied, will 

 please address the Publisher by mail. 



N. E. SELMAR HESS, Publisher, New York. 



