I recognise clearly that my little volumes have been received with so much favour, because, in spite of their simplicity and their lack of scientific importance, they are, so far as they go, original. That is to say, I have not much to give, but what I have is of my own gathering. I have not borrowed from other and cleverer writers, but have set down as plainly as I could what I have myself observed and experienced. It is my privilege to be unusually well placed for the minute study of living creatures, and in that study I find a pleasure so intense that I long to attract others to the same well-spring of pleasure. Unpretending as are the chronicles of the inmates of my house and garden, they are scrupulously true, and every fact that a veracious observer records is a contribution, however small, to our general sum of knowledge. It only remains to say that a few of these chapters have appeared in _Nature Notes_ and in _The Girl’s Own Paper_. The rest are now printed for the first time. ELIZA BRIGHTWEN. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE LEMURS 15 TOMMY AND PEARLIE 27 MUNGO 39 SQUIRRELS 51 FAIRY 57 ASNAPPER 73 WILLOW-WRENS 83 TAME DOVES 91 FEEDING BIRDS 103 STARVING TORTOISES 115 TEACHING CHILDREN 127 STUDYING NATURE 139 INSECT OBSERVATION 153 SOLITARY BEES AND WASPS 165 DRONE FLIES 191 THE PRAYING MANTIS 201 THE CORK MOTH 211 THE CLOTHES MOTH 219 THE DEATH-WATCH 231 CHEESE-MITES AND FLIES 237 LEPISMÆ 245 POT-POURRI 255 A WATER BOUQUET 265 ARTISTIC PITHWORK 271 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE THE GROVE (SOUTH FRONT) _Frontispiece_ TOMMY 31 PEARLIE BASKING BEFORE THE FIRE 35 FAIRY SINGING 65 YOUNG BROWN OWL (ASNAPPER) 79 ASNAPPER 81 MY WINDOW VISITORS 106