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uj LIBRARY 1 



PREFACE. X* - 



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In returning thanks to all our kind friends for the support that 

 The Scottish Naturalist has received during the third and fourth 

 years of its existence, there is one subject that the Editor must 

 reluctantly allude to. 



In the preface to the first volume, more frequent illustrations, 

 and even perhaps an increase of size in the Magazine, without a 

 corresponding increase of price, were promised — if the sub- 

 scribers would help by paying their subscriptions when due, i.e., 

 in advance. 



The annual subscription is small, and consequently the pay- 

 ment thereof easily — as we know from experience in other 

 matters — forgotten. The expenses of the Magazine are so 

 calculated, however, that a neglect on the part of our friends to 

 pay in advance, is the cause, to us who manage the Magazine 

 on their behalf, of considerable increase in the expense and 

 labour. If the subscribers, therefore, will only kindly consider 

 this, we hope yet to be able to carry out the promises made 

 two years ago. 



There is another matter that we may be pardoned for men- 

 tioning. If contributors who desire copies of their papers will 

 communicate with the printer, they can obtain separate copies 

 (of their papers) at a cheap rate, and by doing so will much 

 oblige us, as by purchasing single numbers of the Magazine 

 they break up the sets, and consequently increase the price of 

 the volume when completed. 



December, 1874. 



