PREFACE.

A few words are necessary explanatory of the coursepursued in the following work, as regards the citation ofauthorities.

All the facts recorded without reference to authori-ties, are the result either of personal observation or ofdiligent study, which, from the length of time that hasintervened, have become so blended in my mind thatI can no longer separate their sources. I may, how-ever, state that observation has, certainly, as often anti-cipated the perusal of the discoveries of others, as theirrecord has stimulated direct observation to confirmthem.

The habits of animals, in which instinct is the soleprompter, are so uniform, that these, once well observed,may be considered as permanently established. Theslight deviations that have been occasionally noticed, al-though temporarily infringing, do not abrogate the in-flexibility of the law which regulates this faculty ; and