PREFACE. 



No attempt, it seems almost useless to say, can be 

 made in this little book to do more than attract the 

 attention of its readers to the subject of which it 

 treats and awaken their interest in it. Anything -that 

 excites curiosity and leads to the study of the home 

 life and what may perhaps be called human traits in 

 the lower animals, must necessarily be of use both in 

 supplying means of wholesome, never-failing enter- 

 tainment for the intellectual faculties, engaging and 

 broadening our sympathies, and also in suggesting the 

 standpoint that must be taken in rightly estimating 

 either the capabilities or the limitations of any mem- 

 ber of the greater brotherhood that includes not man- 

 kind only, but every living creature. 



As the life of an animal is more or less centered 

 in the exercise of parental solicitude for its young, 

 the most perfect exhibition of its power to adapt 

 means to a desired end may in a like degree be meas- 

 ured by the character of the home it provides for 

 them and the manner in which it ministers to their 

 comfort and protection. Judged by this standard, it 

 is instructive to note the parallelisms and contrasts 

 between the efforts of man unaided by the cumula- 



