INTRODUCTION. 
V 
kindred Beauties display their charms. Giraffes dash across the 
plains; Zebras frolic; Lions and Leopards prowl through their 
accustomed haunts; and Camels, ''the Ships of the Desert/' speed 
away over the sandy wastes. 
The monstrous Hippopotamus rolls sluggishly through the 
water. That oddity of the Animal World, the Kangaroo, with the 
young in its pouch, leaps through the thicket. Horned Animals of 
every variety and singular beauty, discovered by famous explorers, 
are depicted and give absorbing interest to the pages of this work. 
Rhinoceroses tax all the skill of the hunter to capture them, 
presenting a hide so thick and tough as to defy an ordinary bullet 
to penetrate it. This and other thick-skinned animals are little less 
than monstrosities, while at the other extreme we have such 
attractive creatures as the Arabian Horse, and the Guereza with 
its silver mantle. 
Bears are animals much more pleasant to read about than to 
meet. Found in almost every quarter of the globe, they furnish 
material for hunters' thrilling tales of conflicts and hair-breadth 
escapes. The Bear tribe, the Goat family, these are all pictured as 
the naturalist and explorer find them. This work is delightfully 
entertaining. It is more: it is very instructive; it is an educator 
for all readers. 
Elephants display an intelligence that surprises everybody. 
Swiftness, grace and beauty belong to the Deer and Gazelle. 
Creatures that fly, others that burrow; others that crawl—in short, 
the peculiar characteristics of all the Animal tribes are fully 
described, accompanied with incidents and anecdotes that enrich 
and make attractive every page of this superb volume. 
The feathered tribes discourse such music as makes our 
orchestras commonplace. Their nests rival the architecture of man. 
The colors of these charming creatures of the air eclipse the 
splendors of fashion. Some of them are grotesque in looks and 
habits, but are all portrayed in a manner that delights the reader. 
