PREFACE 



The intention in arranging this work has been to provide pictures in colour 

 of all those animals classed as mammals which inhabit or visit our islands. 



Planned as a companion to the volumes on " British Birds " and " A 

 Naturalist's Sketch Book," recently published, it gives a series of repro- 

 ductions from water-colour drawings of the seventy species which make up 

 the list, and in addition to these are shown various subspecies or closely 

 allied forms, among others some of the local races of mice which have 

 attracted the attention of naturalists during recent years. 



Though lacking the brilliant colouring and wonderful singing powers of 

 birds, the four-footed creatures of our fields, woods, and moorlands have 

 each their own charm and attractiveness, from the tiny Harvest Mouse to 

 the wild Red Deer ; and as many of them only walk by night, it is no 

 easy task to study their life and habits. 



The list of British Mammals is short compared with the much larger 

 number of our native birds ; this has allowed more freedom and space in the 

 arrangement of the pictures and enabled me to devote a whole Plate, and 

 occasionally two, to show to advantage some of the more interesting species. 



The animals represented belong to the six following orders, namely, 

 twelve Cheiroptera (Bats), five Insectivora (Insect-eating mammals), fifteen 

 Carnivora (Flesh-eating mammals), fourteen Rodentia (Rodents or Gnawing 

 mammals), four Ruminantia (Ruminating mammals), and twenty Cetacea 

 (Whales, Porpoises, Dolphins). 



It is not without regret that I have been unable to include pictures of 

 those fine extinct " beasts of the forest," such as the Wolf, the Wild Boar, 

 Giant Fallow Deer, and others, but in order to keep the volumes within a 



