PREFACE.

A taste for the study of Natural History has been
said to be favourable to the exercise of benevolence.
‘‘ Tf we feel a common interest in the gratification of
inferior beings,” it has been well remarked, “ we
shall no longer be indifferent to their sufferings, or
become wantonly instrumental in producing them.
We may be truly said to become susceptible of vir-
tuous impressions from the sight and study of such
objects. ‘The patient ox is viewed with a kind of
complacency ; the guileless sheep with pity ; the play-
ful lamb raises emotions of tenderness. We rejoice
with the horse in his liberty and exemption from toil,

while he ranges at large through the enamelled pas-