Mrs. Loudon's Entertaining Naturalist Being Popular Descriptions, Tales, and Anecdotes of More than Five Hundred Animals

Mrs. Loudon’s Entertaining Naturalist has been so deservedly popular that the publishers, in preparing a new edition, have striven to render it still more worthy of the reputation it has obtained. For this purpose, it has been very thoroughly revised and enlarged by Mr. W. S. Dallas, Member of the Zoological Society, and Curator of the Museum of Natural History at York, and several illustrations have been added.

In its present form, it is not only a complete Popular Natural History of an entertaining character, with an illustration of nearly every animal mentioned, but its instructive introductions on the Classification of Animals adapt it well for use as an elementary Manual of the Natural History of the Animal Kingdom for the use of the Young. Zoology is that branch of Natural History which treats of animals, and embraces not only their structure and functions, their habits, instincts, and utility, but their names and systematic arrangement.

Various systems have been proposed by different naturalists for the scientific arrangement of the animal kingdom, but that of Cuvier, with some modifications, is now thought the best, and a sketch of it will be found under the head of the Modern System in this Introduction. As, however, the System of Linnæus was formerly in general use, and is still often referred to, it has been thought advisable to give a sketch of it first; that the reader may be aware of the difference between the old system and the new one.