This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
It ends with this explanation: "AND SO HERE ENDETH "ERIC'S BOOK OF BEASTS" WHICH DAVID STARR JORDAN DID WITH HIS PEN AND PAINT BOX, BUT THE PICTURES WERE TOO BEE-YOUTIFUL AND 'SPENSIVE; SO HE GOT HIS FRIEND, SHIMADA SEKKO, TO TRANSLATE THEM INTO CALM BLACK AND WHITE. PAUL ELDER AND COMPANY OF SAN FRANCISCO HAVE MADE THEM INTO A BOOK, WITH GREAT GLEE. AT THEIR TOMOYE PRESS JOHN SWART DESIGNED THE TYPE FACE, AND JEAN OLIVER HELPED WITH THE DECORATIONS—AND IT WAS ALL FINISHED AND SENT OUT INTO THE WORLD FOR GOOD BOYS AND GIRLS IN THE MERRY MONTH OF MAY, 1912"