X 
PREFACE. 
the purpose of dehnite arrangement to take the animal 
kingdom in the order presented by zoological classifica- 
tion, it would be absurd to restrict an inquiry into Animal 
Psychology by any considerations of the apparently dis- 
proportionate length and minute subdivision with which 
it is necessary to treat some of the groups. Anatomically, 
an ant or a bee does not require more consideration than a 
beetle or a fly ; but psychologically there is need for as 
great a difference of treatment as there is in the not 
very dissimilar case of a monkey and a man. 
Throughout the work my aim has been to arrive at 
definite principles rather than to chronicle mere inci- 
dents — an aim which will become more apparent when 
the work as a whole shall have been completed. Therefore 
it is that in the present volume I have endeavoured, as 
far as the nature and circumstances of the inquiry would 
permit, to suppress anecdote. Nevertheless, although I 
have nowhere introduced anecdotes for their own sake, I 
have found it unavoidable not to devote much the largest 
part of the present essay to their narration. Hence, with 
the double purpose of limiting the introduction of anec- 
dotes as much as possible, and of not repeating more 
than I could help anecdotes already published, I have in 
all cases, where I could do so without detriment to my 
main object, given the preference to facts which have 
been communicated to me by friends and correspondents. 
And here I may fitly take the opportunity of expressing 
my thanks and obligations to the latter, who in astonish- 
ing numbers have poured in their communications during 
several years from all quarters of the globe. I make this 
statement because I desire to explain to all my corres- 
pondents who may read this book, that I am not the less 
sensible of their kindness because its bounty has ren- 
dered it impossible for me to send acknowledgments in 
