"The species of work to which this volume belongs, while it is not confined to the student of Natural History, but is addressed to all classes of readers, appears to me to be eminently useful in promoting that general acquaintance with Nature which is so highly to be desired, and for which a taste has of late been strongly and growingly evinced."— William Howitt. P R E F AСЕ. THE 'Zoologist' has pursued the even tenor of its way to the termination of a fifth year. It is peculiarly gratifying to mark the subsidence of all opposition to its onward course. I am well aware that at the period of its commencement it was regarded by some as interfering with prescriptive technicalities and chartered obscurities. These sentiments, if still entertained, are kept in abeyance, and all public lamentations about the dissemination of Natural-History knowledge have long ceased. Conservative dulness finds other channels; and a doubt has arisen in the public mind whether the unintelligible, either in physics or metaphysics, be really the most valuable. In my last address I made use of observations respecting the Ray Society, which I regret to find have been disagreeable to some of its members. It should be recollected that this society stands forth as the great Natural-History association of the country. Were it a private speculation I might be justified in passing it by, but it invites notice, it makes a direct demand on our attention: it would be most uncourteous to preserve silence, most uncandid to conceal my real opinion of its proceedings. It must not be for a moment lost sight of, that a vast number, perhaps the majority of its members, became such from a perusal of the advertisements gratuitously circulated with the Zoologist,' a mode of addressing the lovers of Natural History which certainly is unequalled. My own recommendations, moreover, whether availing or otherwise I will not presume to say, were ardent |