PREFACE 
THE following, to a certain extent, are composite 
histories at present our knowledge of the life of 
the individual wild animal is too limited to admit 
of anything else ; but the incidents related are all 
founded on fact, and Redpad, Grimalkin, and the 
rest actually lived, although here they are sometimes 
credited with adventures which in reality befell 
others of their race. 
It may be thought that I have gone too far in 
endowing wild animals with the primitive elements 
of superstition, self-sacrifice, &c. ; but although the 
majority are certainly guided to a very great extent 
by pure instinct, here and there we find one whose 
actions cannot be altogether explained thus ; and 
it must not be forgotten that it is from similar 
exceptions, who lived and died in long past ages, 
that our own powers of reason and reflection, our 
morality, sense of religion, our artists, heroes and 
saints have evolved. 
