VI 
PREFACE 
advice as to a good general book on Natural History are amongst those very 
frequently to be found in the foreign letter-box of the Secretary of the Zoological 
Society of London, and it will be a great satisfaction to him to be able to answer 
them in a definite way. 
As regards the Illustrations to be employed in the present work, there need not 
be any apprehension as to their fitness for the purpose. They are mainly drawn 
from what is newest and most satisfactory in the current and largely augmented 
edition of Brehm’s Tierleben, which is familiar to naturalists as one of the best 
illustrated works on popular Natural History ever issued. Specht and Mtitzel, 
for instance, to whose artistic pencils a large proportion of these pictures are due, 
are well known as being among the most charming portrayers of animal life of 
the present day, rivalling even Joseph Wolf and Keulemans in their sketches; 
and many of the other illustrators are of equally favourable reputation. Moreover, 
to this nucleus of acknowledged excellence there have been added many original 
drawings and engravings of a similar standard of pictorial merit, including not 
a few electrotypes from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society and other 
recognised sources of recent and trustworthy animal portraiture. 
The public are much indebted to private enterprise for ventures of such 
magnitude as The Royal Natural History, in which, on an unusually wide 
scale, there is a genuine endeavour to give the results of modern investigation in a 
convenient and appropriate form, worthy in every respect of the subject, and under 
such arrangements as practically place the volumes within everybody’s reach. 
The study of Natural History has always been deservedly popular with 
young and old; its interest and its educational value as an incentive to thought 
and as a stimulant to observational power have ever held high place. The whole 
civilised world gains by any addition to the facilities of its pursuit, and by any 
