s. How many people know that the very worst animal, the
tiger, is a better husband and father than many men? Or that the
ferocity of the tigress is prompted entirely by her maternal
instinct--and that in every case of unusual ferocity yet recorded it
was afterward found that there was a helpless cub somewhere near?
Hence in subsequent books I shall enter more fully into the causes of
animal instincts and characteristics--their loves and their hates and
their fears.

Regarding the scheme of Book One, the animals are described in their
daily life, and the main scientific facts and principles concerning
each animal are woven into the narrative as a part of that daily life.
But while teaching science to the child in that pleasant form, a few
other purposes have also been kept in view:--

1. To cultivate the child's imagination. True imagination is the
ability to visualize mentally the realities of life, not what is
unreal--for which it is so often mistaken. Hence in this book the
child is helped to visualize the animals in their actual haunts, and
to see each incident as it actually happens.

2. To cultivate the child's reasoning faculty. The child is encouraged
at every step to think and to reason why the animal does certain
things; _e.g._ why the elephant does not drink directly with its
mouth, but has to squirt the water into it with the trunk.

3. To teach a moral from the study of animals. The whole of Creation
is one immense and beautiful pattern: so the child may well be trained
to see the pattern in this also. And as a practical benefit from the
study of animals, the child may learn thereby the value of certain
qualities, such as obedience, discipline, and good citizenship--_e.g._
as in the remarkable case of the elephant, the buffalo, and the
flamingo, as described in the text. In this regard I have kept in mind
the very useful suggestions formulated a few years ago by the Moral
Education League of Great Britain, under the patronage of Queen Mary,
five of whose children at that time ranged in age from seven to
fifteen. One of the functions of education is to present to the child
the noblest and the most elevated of ideals. I have sought to do that
in almost every chapter.

I have to acknowledge my obligation to the New York Kindergarten
Association for its valuable cooperation in putting this book through
a practical test. The Kindergarten Association on more than one
occasion provided me with a large audienc