PREFACE.
The attempt to combine scientific truths with readable English, has been considered by my friends as one of surpassing rashness; and many have been the kind and pressing solicitations I have received to desist from a labour so hopeless,—many the supplications to introduce a few Latin descriptions, just to give the work a scientific character.
In reply to my friends, I would beg to instance White's Selborne. That most delightful of histories is written in pure, plain, intelligible English, and has found ample favour in the eyes of the public. White is now no more, but his mantle has fallen upon others:—a multitude of observers have arisen in the same field, and, what is more to my purpose, have become contributors to the pages of 'The Zoologist.' Nature herself is exhaustless: our field of observation is wider, a thousand-fold, than White ever enjoyed; our capacity for observation is certainly not less. These are the grounds I have for hoping that 'The Zoologist' will succeed.
I beg to offer my warmest thanks to those naturalists who have by their contributions rendered me such important assistance. I would gladly mention by name several whose papers have struck me as particularly pleasing; but in doing so I feel I should be guilty of an unkindness towards others, whose contributions are equally well intended, and equally essential to keep up the character of the work, as a general register for zoological facts.
I hope every contributor to this volume will be also a contributor to the next: and I hope too that each present contributor will
