THE ZOOLOGIST: A POPULAR MISCELLANY OF NATURAL HISTORY. CONDUCTED BY EDWARD NEWMAN, F.L.S., MEMB. IMP. L.-C. ACAD. PREFACE. ANOTHER VOLUME of the 'Zoologist' is complete,- a volume filled with more and with better matter than any which have preceded it. Bulky, however, though it be, it contains no notices of books, no original papers of my own (at least none to occupy space), and scarcely one-half of the original communications which have been sent to me for publication. A portion of the arrears may yet be available, but the principal papers have been returned to the respective writers, and have appeared in journals less popular than my own. It is a most ungracious task to make the necessary selection, but in every instance I have been guided solely by the desire to publish what I believed would be most acceptable to my readers; and I trust that the authors of papers I have declined will give me credit for that species of worldly wisdom which acts from interested motives, and the obvious interest of a journalist is, by every means in his power, extend the circulation and the popularity of his journal. Although I hold that an Editor is in no way committed to the opinions or expressions of his contributors, yet I feel it most undesirable that any communication offensive to a single reader should be allowed to pass unnoticed; and I regret to say that such a paper has appeared: I allude to that by Dr. Knox on the present state and future prospects of Zoology. The theme is an excellent one, replete with opportunities for diffusing instruction; but the learned author has mixed with much that is valuable, sentiments and expressions which have caused infinite pain, not to myself alone, but to some of my most valued supporters. It were idle for me to repudiate any participation in the sentiments to which I have alluded: the entire management of the Zoologist' for fifteen years is the unanswerable evidence of this. But, were there nothing objectionable in Dr. Knox's views, it must be obvious, even to the Doctor himself, that the 'Zoologist' is not a medium for their expression: with polemics and politics the 'Zoologist' can have nothing to do. There is another feature in the present volume which must not be passed over without explanation, the irregular appearance and final cessation of the Reports of the Meetings of the Entomological Society. I am fully aware that the executives of our learned Societies in London have long held that their Proceedings, like juvenile wines, improve by keeping, and that they have rarely indulged us with a draught of knowledge until it has been some years in bottle. In prominent contradistinction to these, the Entomological Society took an exactly opposite course, and became really remarkable for the promptitude and accuracy with which copious reports of its Proceedings were circulated throughout the country in the pages of the 'Zoologist.' Without attaching blame to any one, I may state that the commencement of irregularity in the transmission of these Reports led to remonstrance on my part and reply on the part of the Society; farther delay, farther remonstrance and farther reply; until at last I voluntarily abandoned all idea of claiming these Reports as I had previously done under an agreement with a former Council of the Society. Still the monthly publication of these Reports is so favourite a project of my own that I will not relinquish it without another effort, and I entertain some idea of becoming my own reporter, and of supplying a series of Reports, next year, of the scientific doings of a Society in which so many of my subscribers have always taken the warmest interest. The study of Zoology has been progressing with us favourably and steadily; but I could wish, and have often expressed the wish, that our attention should not be so much confined to the acquisition of |