Bradshaw. H. Swales. Dec 25-1890. Detroit, Michigan. PREFACE. I AM free to confess that, were our animals as stupid and machine-like as many observers represent them and as certain would-be critics assume them to be, I should not feel tempted to spend my days in a series of more. or less protracted outings continuing through the year, nor look upon experiment as one whit better than a pleasing pastime. But the beasts and birds, reptiles, fishes, and "such small deer" are nothing of the kind, and their intelligence still not only offers a wide field for study, but adds a zest to every contemplative stroll. Strictly inanimate nature is, for me, far less exhilarating. "Antres vast and deserts idle" figure better in poetry than in fact, and the lifeless wastes of the world offer little that has roused my enthusiasm so promptly as some familiar field with its scattered sparrows, and perchance a bluebird on the rude worm fence; and as yet I have no fear that at last there will be no novelty and my well-tramped fields will pall. "To-morrow they will wear another face." |