The proper place in which to study the minds, manners and morals
of wild animals is in the most thickly populated haunts of the
most intelligent species. The free and untrammeled animal, busily
working out its own destiny unhindered by man, is the beau-ideal
animal to observe and to study. Go to the plain, the wilderness,
the desert and the mountain, not merely to shoot everything on
foot, but to SEE _animals at home,_ and there use your eyes
and your field-glass. See what _normal wild animals_ do as
"behavior," and then try to find out why they do it.

The next best place for study purposes is a spacious, sanitary and
well-stocked zoological park, wherein are assembled great
collections of the most interesting land vertebrates that can be
procured, from all over the earth. There the student can observe
many new traits of wild animal character, as they are brought to
the surface by captivity. There will some individuals reveal the
worst traits of their species. Others will reveal marvels in
mentality, and teach lessons such as no man can learn from them in
the open. To study temperament, there is no place like a zoo.

Even there, however, the wisest course,--as it seems to me,--is
not to introduce too many appliances as aids to mental activity,
but rather to see what the animal subject thinks and does _by
its own initiative._ In the testing of memory and the
perceptive faculties, training for performances is the best method
to pursue.

The reader has a right to know that the author of this volume has
enjoyed unparalleled opportunities for the observation and study
of highly intelligent wild animals, both in their wild haunts and