412 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [DeC. 



that of giving a skeleton of the subject, with illustrations taken 

 from species which the student can collect for himself within the 

 limits of British North America, or can readily obtain access to 

 in public or private collections. 



'• Fossil animals are included as well as those which are recent, 

 because many types not represented in our existing fauna occur 

 as fossils in our rock formations ; and because one important use 

 of the teaching of Zoolosy is that it may be made subsidiary to 

 geological research. 



" I have avoided the modern doctrines of a ' physical basis of 

 life ' and of ' derivation,' because I believe them to rest on 

 grounds very different from those of true science, and therefore 

 to be unsuitable for the purposes of a text-book. I have also 

 retained the Cuvierian provinces of the animal kingdom as 

 amended by modern discoveries. I am quite aware that there 

 are Zoologists who affirm that the Province Radiata has been 

 ' effectually abolished ' and that other provinces should be 

 broken up ; but as I cannot help perceiving that the four types 

 of the great French naturalist exist in nature, I have not 

 scrupled to adhere to them, as the expression of a grand and 

 philosophical idea, essential to an accurate and enlarged concep- 

 tion of nature. 



" In the present chaos of synonymy in Zoology, I have often 

 been perplexed as to the generic and specific names to be given 

 to our most common animals; but have endeavoured to take 

 such a middle way between the older names and the later 

 innovations as seemed likely to be least perplexing to the 

 student." 



To some of those who regard themselves as the more " ad- 

 vanced" naturalists the views above stated may be objectionable, 

 but they are, no doubt, the safest in the present state of the 

 subject. 



The idea of representing the various groups of animals by 

 Canadian examples, is one which involves an immense amount of 

 labour and research, and must necessarily, in the present state of 

 knowledge, be more or less incomplete. Still it has been carried 

 out to a great extent in this work, and the student and collector 

 will find described, and often well figured, a very large proportion 

 of our more common and important invertebrate animals. As 

 examples, we give the following extracts, which we have selected 

 purposely as referring to creatures not popularly much known. 



