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AUTHOR’S PREFACE. 
There are two reasons which have induced the Author to 
publish the following pages. The first is, that as the pleasing 
study of Natural History ought to be extensively introduced 
into institutions of learning, yet the generality of books 
already in circulation on this subject, present to the mind of 
the student either too great an amount of detail, or else include 
in a single volume, necessarily meagre, the whole Animal 
Kingdom. The second is, that a growing desire for further 
acquaintance with this study is felt among a large and increas- 
ing class of intelligent readers, who have not the facilities for 
using books of reference which savants have. In a country 
like this where a man is brought into contact with mere 
nature, teeming with unsuspected wealth, of what incalculable 
advantage is it to have, if it be but the rudiments of a science 
which will tell him the properties, and therefore the value 
of its animals and natural productions. He whose mind is 
relaxed and wearied, after the hours of business, will not sit 
dreaming over impossible scenes of pleasure, or go for amuse- 
ment to haunts of coarse excitement, if his interest is once 
awakened in some study fitted to keep the mind in health. 
To gratify this desire to some extent, and to assist students 
in this department, is the object of the present work. 
Much of the matter is original, the result of a long and 
somewhat extensive familiarity with the science. Much also 
