fe^ Hniinate Creation. ^^^^^ 



o a '^■^T^ have concluded to submit for public patronage a work with tlic above title, being a series 



g 'I ^W^ Qf exquisite Engravings representing the Ammai, VV'ORLD, executed with great scientific 



8 I accuracy, and accompanied by full Descriptive Text, written in [jopular terms, so as to 



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

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



~ "o lias not before this been published in this country. Indeed any lover of animals who lias visited the 



■o 5 great museums and zo ^lo^ical gardens and lias had access to books of engravings in the public 



^ 2 libraries, coL4ld luH fail to remark the wealth of mateiiai in existence devoted to this subject. Being 



-■ " confirmed in our conviction of the desirability of such a work-, we laid undei' 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, F"r. Specht, and Wutzel. 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 Le aided and interested in their study by such an array of 

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

 is printed in oil-colors, and this portion of the illustrations has been taken cliaige 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 " Brelim's Thierieben," so that they may be declared perfectly reliable. 



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

 company this panorama of handsome Engravings. It was found impossib'e to embod3'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 tliose 

 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 

 ^ a - ^ - treatment of birds. The late arranrjement of the classification and nomenclature of North American 

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

 < "c g § S utilized in full. The arrangement of Mammals will be after the latest classification by Professor 

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

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

 animate world surrounding us. 



ITcrme 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 OS Full I'age Engravings on Wood, besides many hundreds of exquisite Illustrations 

 interspersed through the text. The parts will be issued every two weeks, and are pay;ible 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. Xo ttrdcr oaii bo <miici-IIc<I aM«'r JU'«M'plaiieo. 



N. E- SELMAR HESS, Publisher, New Yo.-k. 





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