PEEFACE. V 



circumstances are the subject of their yams. However, amongst 

 so much chaff a few grains of wheat, in the shape of quaint or 

 curious information can now and then be gleaned, and, when 

 found, a note has been made of the fact, and the remarks utilized. 



Respecting the illustrations, Not being able in nature to find 

 the vivid colours, the savage expressions, the glaring eyes, the 

 exaggerated dimensions or the ungraceful attitudes which I 

 had from a very tender age been led to associate with the 

 descendants of Noah's joint occupiers of the ark, and remember- 

 ing Dr, Livingstone's remark upon the subject wherein he 

 observes that painters generally make their lions' faces like old 

 women in night-caps, I came to the conclusion that on this point 

 at any rate I would try and inaugurate a new departure, and, 

 instead of illustrating the book with pictures of the animals as 

 many artists seem to think they oiight to be, I would portray 

 them as they are, and with this object use photographs wherever 

 possible. 



The phototype reproductions of the negatives, as givenherewith, 

 have been made by the well-known artistic lithographers, Messrs, 

 I, and A. Lemercier, of Paris, 



Except in the few instances elsewhere acknowledged, where I 

 am indebted to the kindness of others for certain pictures, the 

 actual photographs were taken by myself. Having to take them 

 instantaneously, often in comparatively dark places, has prevented 

 them, of course, from exhibiting the finish and care that might 

 have been bestowed on them had the animals been taken in a well- 

 lighted studio and behaved themselves with sufficient decorum to 

 do as they were told, look pleasant, and stand still. As specimens 

 of photography but little merit is claimed for them, but they must 

 be studied as the faithful portrayal of the animals represented, for 

 by the kind permission of the Secretary of the Zoological Society 

 the animals themselves stood for the pictures, "Stood" being used 

 in its photographic sense, for, as a matter of fact, they very rarely 

 stood still even for a second, being rather disobliging in that way. 



To those readers who may possess but slight scientificinformation 

 respecting the brute creation, but nevertheless are lovers of the 

 animal world, I trust my book will afford a little pleasure and 



