F ]R E F A € E. 



■JLn giving the following Work'to the public, I wish to loe 

 'understood, as laying no claim whatever to att'sntion, ex- 

 cept on the score oi'ntilit3^ If however by going somewhat 

 out of the track of former writers, adhering at the same time 

 strictly to system, it shall appear, that I have brought for- 

 ward anecdotes and observations that tend to promote the 

 •study of this delightful science, I s'lall consider my labour 

 as not having been unprofitably bestowed." 'For this purpose, 

 besides my 'own immediate observations,' I' have ranged 

 through a most expensive collection oi books, amounting in 

 number to near a t/wii.unid vohnnen ; 'and I have taken in th© 

 accounts of nearly all the authentic travellers and histori- 

 -ansi'frorn the earliest to the present, times. 



The principal intention of the work, is to induce, in per- 

 sons who have nothitherto^ttended-to the subject, a tastefor 

 the study of Natural History ; and, by confining my remarks 

 almost exclusively to the manners of the animals, I have en- 

 deavoured to put such of my readers, as may think the sub- 

 ject vyorth attention, into a train for looking more deeply 

 into it than any books can possibly lead them, and to point 

 out to ihem the mode of making observations for themselves 

 in the grand volume of Nature, tiiat lies always open for 

 their perusal. 



'To t\\Q female readev I must remark, tliat every indelicate 

 subject is scrupulously excluded. The dangerous tendency 

 in this respect of the writings of the Comte de BufTon, and 

 a few others, his followers, is too generally known to ren- 

 der any further apology for stich a liberty necessary. 



