INTRODUCTION. 



THE evening before leaving for one of my periodical ex- 

 cursions, I was putting in order my guns, my insect- 

 cases, and all my travelling necessaries, when my eldest son, 

 a lad nine years old, came running to me in that wheedling 

 manner — using that irresistible diplomacy of childhood 

 which imposes on fathers and mothers so many trouble- 

 some treaties, and which children so well know how to as- 

 sume when they desire to obtain a favor. 



" Are you going to make as long a journey as you did 

 last month ?" he asked. 



" Longer, I think ; for, as we are so soon leaving for Eu- 

 rope, I want to complete my collection as rapidly as possi- 



