Part 1

Produced by Jessica Rupp

A Child's Primer Of Natural History

By Oliver Herford with Pictures by the Author

Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1899

Copyright 1899, by Oliver Herford

CONTENTS

A Seal The Giraffe The Yak A Whale The Leopard The Sloth The Elephant The Pig-Pen Some Geese The Ant An Arctic Hare The Wolf An Ostrich The Hippopotamus The Fly The Mongoos The Platypus The Chimpanzee A Mole The Rhinoceros A Penguin The Cat The Dog A Chameleon

A Seal.

SEE, chil-dren, the Fur-bear-ing Seal; Ob-serve his mis-di-rect-ed zeal: He dines with most ab-ste-mi-ous care On Fish, Ice Water and Fresh Air A-void-ing cond-i-ments or spice, For fear his fur should not be nice And fine and smooth and soft and meet For Broad-way or for Re-gent Street And yet some-how I of-ten feel (Though for the kind Fur-bear-ing Seal I har-bor a Re-spect Pro-found)

The Giraffe.

SEE the Gi-raffe; he is so tall There is not room to get him all U-pon the page. His head is high-er-- The pic-ture proves it--than the Spire. That's why the na-tives, when they race To catch him, call it stee-ple-chase. His chief de-light it is to set A good example: shine or wet He rises ere the break of day, And starts his break-fast right away. His food has such a way to go,-- His throat's so very long,--and so An early break-fast he must munch To get it down ere time for lunch.

The Yak.

THIS is the Yak, so neg-li-gée: His coif-fure's like a stack of hay; He lives so far from Any-where, I fear the Yak neg-lects his hair, And thinks, since there is none to see, What mat-ter how un-kempt he be. How would he feel if he but knew That in this Pic-ture-book I drew His Phys-i-og-no-my un-shorn, For chil-dren to de-ride and scorn?

A Whale.

THE con-sci-en-tious art-ist tries On-ly to draw what meets his eyes. This is the Whale; he seems to be A spout of wa-ter in the sea. Now, Hux-ley from one bone could make An un-known beast; so if I take This spout of wa-ter, and from thence Con-struct a Whale by in-fer-ence, A Whale, I ven-ture to as-sert, Must be an an-i-mat-ed squirt! Thus, chil-dren, we the truth may sift By use of Log-ic's Price-less Gift.

The Leopard.

THIS is the Le-o-pard, my child; His tem-per's any-thing but mild. The Le-o-pard can't change his spots, And that--so say the Hot-ten-tots-- Is why he is so wild. Year in, year out, he may not change, No mat-ter how the wea-ther range, From cold to hot. No won-der, child, We hear the Le-o-pard is wild.

The Sloth.

THE Sloth en-joys a life of Ease; He hangs in-vert-ed from the trees, And views life up-side down. If you, my child, are noth-ing loath To live in In-dol-ence and Sloth, Un-heed-ing the World's frown, You, too, un-vexed by Toil and Strife, May take a hu-mor-ous view of life.

The Elephant.

THIS is the El-e-phant, who lives With but one aim--to please. His i-vo-ry tusk he free-ly gives To make pi-a-no keys. One grief he has--how-e'er he tries, He nev-er can for-get That one of his e-nor-mous size Can't be a house-hold pet. Then does he to his grief give way, Or sink 'neath sor-row's ban? Oh, no; in-stead he spends each day Con-tri-ving some un-sel-fish way To be of use to Man.

The Pig-Pen.

OH, turn not from the hum-ble Pig, My child, or think him in-fra dig. We oft hear lit-er-a-ry men Boast of the in-flu-ence of the Pen; Yet when we read in His-to-ry's Page Of Hu-man Pigs in ev-er-y age, From Cr-sus to the pres-ent day, Is it, my child, so hard to say (De-spite the Scribes' vain-glo-ri-ous boast) What Pen has in-flu-enced Man the most?

Some Geese.

EV-ER-Y child who has the use Of his sen-ses knows a goose. See them un-der-neath the tree Gath-er round the goose-girl's knee, While she reads them by the hour From the works of Scho-pen-hau-er. How pa-tient-ly the geese at-tend! But do they re-al-ly com-pre-hend What Scho-pen-hau-er's driv-ing at? Oh, not at all; but what of that? Nei-ther do I; nei-ther does she; And, for that mat-ter, nor does he.

The Ant.

MY child, ob-serve the use-ful Ant, How hard she works each day. She works as hard as ad-a-mant (That's very hard, they say). She has no time to gal-li-vant; She has no time to play. Let Fido chase his tail all day; Let Kitty play at tag: She has no time to throw a-way, She has no tail to wag. She scurries round from morn till night; She ne-ver, ne-ver sleeps; She seiz-es ev-ery-thing in sight, And drags it home with all her might, And all she takes she keeps.

An Arctic Hare.