12 OYSTERS, AND ALL ABOUT THEM. 



displayed in his always-reliable, deeply-interesting, and 

 highly-instructive volumes ; and (2) a consciousness of 

 the inadequacy of my own zoological observations and 

 conchological knowledge in comparison with that of 

 the justly-esteemed author in question, to thoroughly meet 

 the requirements of the Naturalist, and (I hope) the appre- 

 ciative pleasure of the general reader. 



Possibly my close and faithful adherence to the text of 

 the above-named writer may demand some slight apology 

 from me, or, at least, an explanation of the reason for my 

 verbatim quotations of his minute and scientifically-graphic 

 description of the conchifera. In reply to that, I may 

 plead that no apology is requisite ; for, it being understood 

 that this work is, professedly, a compilation, continuous 

 and complete extracts from such a standard source surely 

 do not need an apology. But, even granting this appa- 

 rently questionable premise, the reader may urge that I 

 should not have overstepped the modesty of a favour in 

 avariciously extracting the bulk of a fat pamphlet, where 

 (perhaps) only a few pages had been intended as an 

 advantageous aid by the friend mentioned. 



In answering this natural observation, I must emphati- 

 cally impress upon the reader's mind the fact, that to have 

 abridged Jeffreys' text would but have served to diminish 

 its merits. His concise style is so favourably adapted to 

 scientific literary composition, that it allows neither of 

 addition, subtraction, division, or alteration, without 

 entirely nullifying its characteristic construction, and 

 illustrative or critical utility. To the Conchologist his 

 observations and critical remarks, his various linguistical 

 abilities and wide reading, greatly enhance the value of the 

 work. To the general reader, although the scientific 



