Stories about the Instinct of Animals, Their Characters, and Habits

A conversational narrator addresses young readers with a sequence of animal-focused chapters that mix natural-history description and anecdote. Topics include horses and herd capture, beaver dams and lodges, methods used to catch and tame elephants, sheep and goats, domestic cats and big felines, tigers and pumas, migrations of birds and fish, social insects and the habits of primates. Each chapter combines behavioral observations of instinct, intelligence, affection, and docility with practical accounts of human-animal encounters, capture techniques, and animal constructions, often illustrated by engravings that clarify structures and scenes.