Anecdotes of the Habits and Instinct of Animals is a popular Victorian natural-history book by Mrs. R. Lee, who drew on travel, reading, and personal acquaintance with naturalists to gather striking stories of animal behaviour. Organised by species, it presents elephants, dogs, monkeys, birds, and many others through vivid tales meant to illustrate their intelligence and instinct.
Written in an engaging, accessible style, the book reflects an age fascinated by the mental lives of animals and eager to find evidence of reason and feeling in the natural world. Though anecdotal rather than rigorously scientific, it captures the period’s affectionate curiosity about wildlife and the popular appetite for natural history. For modern readers it offers both charming reading and an instructive glimpse of how the Victorians thought about the minds of beasts.