The Gresham Publishing Company. 



The Natural History 



The Animal Life of the World in its 

 various Aspects and Relations. P^y J- 

 ^-f A tl i m 51 1 C * ^^' '■^'^SWOKTH Davis, M.a., of Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 ^* /».illil-IC1.10 • ^j^j^ Qf University College, Aberystwyth. Profusely illus- 

 trated with full-page colour and black-and-white plates, and engravings in the text, by 

 eminent animal artists. In 8 half-volumes, cloth extra, price js. net each. 



'W'hile the sum of human knowledge is gigantic now as compared with what it was a hundred 

 years ago, in the department of Natural History the books upon which the great majority of us 

 must depend have undergone practically no change. The general Natural History still follows the 

 lines adopted by Goldsmith in his famous and delightful Earth and Animated Nature. That is to say, 

 they are little more than classified catalogues of animals, taking up in succession the various groups and 

 individuals, and describing them one after another, each as standing by itself. This is not what 

 the intelhgent reader of the present day requires. He must be put in a position to take a comprehensive 

 grasp of the subject; he demands a competent guide, not a directory, however accurate. 



It is with this end in view that The Natural HistoRV of Animal.s has been compiled. It treats 

 this great subject on essentially modern hnes, giving an accurate and vivid account of the habits, 

 relationships, mutual interdependence, adaptation to environment, &c., of the living animals of the 

 world. 



It is needless to say that the production of such a work demanded a man who has de\"Oted his life to 

 the study of biology and zoology, and who at the same time is a gifted writer and expounder. This rare 

 combination has been found in the person of Prof. J. R. Ainsworth Davis, m.a., of Trinity College, 

 Cambridge, and of University College, Aberystwyth, the author of the present work. Prof. Davis 

 is well known to naturalists as an ardent worker in Natural History, particularly in the field of marine 

 zoology. He is a very distinguished graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, the chief scientific school 

 in Britain, perhaps in the w-orld, and has done a great deal of literary work, both scientific and in other 

 directions. 



Briefly, the object of Prof. Davis's work is to gi\-e in a readable form and m non-technical language 

 a general survey of the whole animal world from the stand-point of modern science — and the work mav 

 fairly claim to be a Natural History on a new plan, the first comprehensi\-e work in English of its ow^n 

 special kind. Formerly Natural History had much the character of a miscellaneous aggregate of 

 disconnected facts, but hardly any fact or feature connected with any animal can now be considered 

 as isolated from others; and animals as a whole must be looked upon as interrelated in the most 

 surprising manner both with one another and with their surroundings. 



Every household library should contain a Bible, a Dictionary, an Encyclopedia, and a work on 

 Natural History. This is the "irreducible minimum"; other books we may have, these we must. 

 For The Natural History of Animals it may fairly be claimed that it has a better title than 

 any other work to become the Natural History for the Household. It is a work in which the 

 adult reader will find a never-failing mine of information, while the younger members of the family 

 will delight in its wealth of illustration, and its store of interesting and suggestive anecdote. 



To teachers The Natural History of Animals may be regarded as indispensable. More 

 than usual attention has of late been directed to the important subject of Nature-study ; and in this 

 respect the appearance of Prof. Davis's work could scarcely have been more fitly timed. In the domain 

 of Natural History it is pre-eminently the book for the purpose. Its clear and orderly arrangement 

 of facts, its masterly grasp of general principles, its comprehensiveness of scope and simplicity of style, 

 combined \\ith the most absolute scientific accuracy, render this work an invaluable book of reference 

 for those who aspire to teach Nature-study on up-to-date principles. 



The Illustrations, as befits a work of such importance, are on the most lavish scale. A large number 

 are in colour, reproductions, by the latest processes of colour engraving, of exquisite pictures by the most 

 eminent animal draughtsmen. In illustrating the work talent has been sought wherever it was to be 

 found ; and the list of artists is representative of several nationalities. A large number of the designs are 

 the work of Mr. A. Fairfax Muckley, who is probably unsurpassed in the capacity to depict living 

 creatures with absolute fidehty to detail without sacrificing the general artistic effect. Friedrich 

 Specht, one of the most eminent German animal painters of the past century, is represented in The 

 Natural History of Animals by many of his best designs in colour and black-and-white. 

 W. Kuhnert, another German artist whose work is universally admired; and M. A. Koekkoek, 

 the talented Dutch painter, are also among those who have assisted in the embellishment of the work. 

 An important feature is the series of diagrammatic designs showing the structure of certain typical 

 animals, specially drawn under the direction of Prof. Davis. 



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