PREFACE.
The usefulness of the study of Natural History is now so fully admitted, that it needs not to be recommended. It is a branch of knowledge peculiarly appropriate to youth, inculcating many virtues and graces in a very pleasing manner; while its attractions are proved by the universality of the interest which young people take in its details. And though, in this reading age, works on the classification, structure, economy, and manners of animals are very numerous, yet such is the extent of the subject, and so rapidly are discoveries continually being made, that there is no fear of its becoming exhausted.
The following work embraces all the Families of the Mammala; each of which is illustrated by a single genus and species; the technical characters of the Class, of the Orders, the Families, and the Genera, are given with scientific accuracy, but in language intelligible to all; their geographical distribution is particularly noticed; and the history of each selected species is given somewhat in detail, and interspersed with characteristic anecdotes. Pictorial illustrations of each species
