PREFACE 



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/^NE of the saddest features of civilisation is 

 ^-^ the disappearance of so many beautiful and 

 curious creatures from this world of ours. From 

 all parts of the earth the same story comes ; and 

 we now seem to be within measurable distance of 

 a time when wrecks and remnants of once compact 

 and indigenous assemblages of organisms will be 

 all that remain to us, and such a thing as a 

 complete fauna will be unknown. This is not only 

 a crime, but the violation of a sacred trust which 

 we hold for posterity. Civilisation has already 

 ground away under its merciless heel most of the 

 faunal facies of Europe; Asia fares but little 

 better, and is fast being reduced to the same state ; 

 Africa is being rapidly depleted of all its most 

 curious and striking forms of animal life ; Austral- 

 asia is a wretched object lesson of civilised man's 



