Four Hundred Animal Stories - SELECTED AND EDITED BY ROBERT COCHRANE - PREFACE - History Branch of the British Museum, from which we make some extracts by way of conclusion. It bears indirectly on our subject, as it gives examples of the influence of a passion for the study of natural Iistory on the youthful mind. Mr Gladstone, in replying to a letter addressed to him by a correspondent on the subject of the Protection of Wild Birds, said I trust earnestly that natural history, with its many branches, is destined to receive a more liberal acknowledgment in our system of education hereafter than Ias heretofore been accorded to it. Mr SeIous, the distinguished African traveller and mighty hunter, once told the boys of Rugby School, of which he was a former pupil, that searching for birds nests and making boyish natural history expeditions had fitted him in a manner for his adventurous career in the interior of Africa. The biggest poacher in the school, however reprehensible his doings...