serious question has been: What shall be left out?

Mr. A. R. Spofford, first Librarian of Congress, used to declare that
"Books are made from books"; but I call the reader to bear witness that
this volume is not a mass of quotations. A quoted authority often can
be disputed, and for this reason the author has found considerable
satisfaction in relying chiefly upon his own testimony.

Because I always desire to know the _opinions_ of men who are
writing upon their own observations, I have felt free to express my own
conclusions regarding the many phases of animal intelligence as their
manifestation has impressed me in close-up observations.

I have purposely avoided all temptations to discuss the minds and
manners of domestic animals, partly because that is by itself a large
subject, and partly because their minds have been so greatly influenced
by long and close association with man. The domestic mammals and birds
deserve independent treatment.

A great many stories of occurrences have been written into this
volume, for the purpose of giving the reader all the facts in
order that he may form his own opinions of the animal mentality
displayed.

Most sincerely do I wish that the boys and girls of America, and of the
whole world, may be induced to believe that _the most interesting
thing about a wild animal is its mind and its reasoning,_ and that a
dead animal is only a poor decaying thing. If the feet of the young men
would run more to seeing and studying the wild creatures and less to
the killing of them, some of the world's valuable species might escape