PREFACE 



BENJAMIN KIDD was always a keen observer 

 of nature. He was engaged more or less con- 

 tinuously throughout his hfe in carrying out 

 systematic observations and experiments on the 

 habits and intelligence of animals, and in the pursuit 

 of this hobby collected a large number of careful 

 notes which it was always his intention to publish. 

 He died, however, without bringiiig this side of his 

 hfe to fruition, and it has not yet been possible to 

 pubhsh his records and notes on this subject. 



From time to time, however, throughout his life 

 he wrote essays and articles of general interest on 

 subjects of natural history. In the present volume 

 a selection of these has been brought together for 

 the first time. The first two in the book — the 

 latest written — have not before been pubhshed. 

 The remainder appeared in the author's Hfetime, 

 over a period of some twenty years, in periodical 

 Uterature. We axe able to reproduce them now by 

 the courtesy of the journals in which they appeared. 

 Owing to the manner in which these essays were 

 in the first place written they contain a certain 

 amount of repetition which, though to a certain 

 extent unavoidable, has been as far as possible 

 reduced in editing the present selection. The 



