COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
PRINTED IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Preface
In the earlier volumes of this series, man, as the maker of and dweller in the home, was dealt with in the varied aspects of his existence. But man is not the only occupant of the home. He has brought around him an interesting family of animals of great variety in form and habit, many of them kept as pets and companions, many aiding him in his sports and his labors, others supplying him with meat, milk, butter, eggs and other forms of food. It is a varied and active sub-family of the household, the barnyard and field with which we here propose to deal, its inmates varying in size from the lordly elephant to the busy bee, and in intelligence from the wide-awake dog to the stupid sheep, a multitude of running, flying, and swimming forms brought together from every domain of nature and serving man in a hundred ways.
The full story of this wider family of the home would be a long one. These humbler animals have a life of their own as interesting in its way as that of man, their master and friend. We cannot tell it all in the small space at our command, but the little we have here brought together concerning the varieties and habits of our household animals must have some considerable degree of interest to readers. This is especially the case with the many stories that can be told of their powers of thought and special habits and modes of action, and the reader will find here many striking anecdotes of animal intelligence selected out of the multitude that are on record. The story of the whole animal kingdom is pleasing and instructive, and that of the domestic animals, those which have come under man's special care, is specially so, as it is hoped the readers of this work will discover. Illustrations have been secured from a large variety of sources, a number, picturing the rarer animals, being reproduced from "Chambers' Encyclopedia."