PREFACE. I FEEL myself called upon, at this period of my labours, to address a few brief observations to my readers. I have, in the first place, to return my grateful acknowledgements for the very large share of public patronage which my works have hitherto enjoyed—a patronage which has conferred upon them success; and which, I trust, may still be awarded to such future publications of a similar character as, if permitted the exercise of life and health, I design further to embark upon the sea of public opinion. To the kindness with which the PRESS have treated my undertaking, I have also to acknowledge my gratitude, and to express a hope that, in the future performance of my pleasing task, I may continue to merit and enjoy the good opinion of that powerful and important organ of public sentiment. I would now desire permission to speak a few words of myself, in order to explain what possibly might otherwise, on some future occasion, create question or surprise. I allude to the circumstance of one individual undertaking to write, and that practically, upon so many different subjects. I am induced to advert to this from a fear lest any of my readers should be induced to regard my little books as mere compilations, in which case the authority which I could desire them to possess might be to a great degree lost. The facts of the case are these. From the very earliest period that I can remember, I was devotedly attached to animals. In infancy, this, of course, only amounted to a warm affection for such individual cats, dogs, or birds, as were inmates of the same house. In childhood, the sentiment became still further developed, in cutting out of, or drawing upon, paper, the forms of such animals as I was acquainted with from personal observation, or through the medium of prints. As childhood advanced to boyhood, so did my desires extend and derive additional gratification from making pets of such creatures as I could procure, and making all their little ways and habits my attentive study. In this pursuit I was greatly aided by a kind and indulgent mother, her |