iv PREFACE. 



The educational works are, of course, intended for the schools. 

 The value of many of these books must to the ordinary mind be 

 somewhat impaired by the taint of levity which characterizes the 

 style in which they are written. Their authors seem to have a 

 repugnance to calling an animal by its correct name ; thus they 

 very rarely refer to a bear as a bear, but as " master bruin, a 

 lion is styled " his Majesty, King Leo," and the other beasts 

 have similarly inappropriate appellations entirely unbecoming to 

 the dignity of the subject. 



Being naturally fond of animals and interested in everything 

 appertaining to them, I have thought for some years past that 

 there was room for a book which would accurately describe their 

 salient features, distinguishing peculiarities, and specific habits, 

 and that by dropping as far as possible all scientific descriptions 

 and the general use of scientific nomenclatures, and adding 

 certain historical facts or interesting anecdotes in which they 

 prominently figured, that it might be made readable and enter- 

 taining as well as instructive. I consequently set to work upon 

 the following pages and, if so far I have failed in my intention, 

 the fault is entirely due to me personally, and not certainly 

 through any want of interest that is inherent in the subject. 



It is obviously impossible for any one man to write from 

 personal experience or observation upon more than a few of the 

 various quadrupeds existing upon the globe. In consequence, 

 the direct information respecting the various members of the 

 animal world is to be found scattered over a large number of 

 travellers' and hunters' narratives. I have selected those that 

 were known to me from which according to my own judgment 

 the most trustworthy facts could be gleaned about the beasts in 

 their native haunts, and to the authors quoted in the following 

 pages I have to acknowledge my obligations. I am indebted to 

 works of this character that have appeared within the last few 

 years rather than to similar works of previous dates, wherein fable 

 and truth are so blended that they are practically useless for my 

 purpose. The " travellers' tales " of the past never tax our 

 credulity or insult our common sense so much as when their 

 hunting adventures are on the tapis, or wild animals under any 



