THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST. 



' ' The hand of Nature on peculiar minds 

 Imprints a different bias, and to each 

 Decrees his province in the common toil." 



Thomson. 



"INHERE has never before, we believe, been any attempt 

 * to establish a Scottish Journal of Natural History ; it is 

 therefore with much diffidence that the Perthshire Society of 

 Natural Science has undertaken a task, possibly more suited to 

 the strength of an older and more influential Society. 



The great tendency of the age is centralization. All infor- 

 mation must be sent to, and emanate from, the metropolis. We 

 do not say that this is altogether wrong, but, at the same time, a 

 necessary consequence is, that many valuable observations and 

 facts relating to Scottish Natural History are scattered in the 

 transactions of the various learned societies, or in the different 

 scientific magazines, and being mixed up with numerous British 

 and Foreign notices, lose much of their local interest, and often 

 altogether escape the notice of Scottish readers. 



Without trespassing on the fields occupied by the many more 

 or less valuable scientific journals published in Britain, we pur- 

 pose devoting the pages of the " Scottish Naturalist" to the 

 following. objects : — 



(a) The publication of original articles, either communicated 

 directly to the " Scottish Naturalist" or (if read be- 

 fore any Society) not already, or to be, published* 



