VOL. VI.] INCREASE AND DECREASE. 297 



to whom Ave are greatly indebted for the following account 

 of the results acliieved. Tn reading this account it must 

 be clearly borne in mind that the material upon which 

 it is based is not sufficient in our opinion to warrant 

 any very definite conclusions. The report must be read 

 as an interim one which may be Hable to correction 

 should the inquiry be continued as we hope. 



Mr. Vaughan had kindly prepared a map for each 

 species, but we think it better to reproduce only a 

 selection of these, in order to give an idea of what might 

 be done by a more thorough inquiry. 



We think it Avill be agreed after Mr. Vaughan's paper 

 has been read, that the subject is an interesting one from 

 many points of view, and may lead to issues of considerable 

 importance. We therefore propose to ask our readers 

 to continue the inquiry, and we sincerely hope that this 

 year the majority will be able to fill in the schedules, 

 and that we may have many hundreds of replies to work 

 upon. We also hope that with the initial experience 

 of last year more of the exact information which is so 

 valuable will be forthcoming. 



In order that our readers may see exactly what is 

 required of them we are sending out the schedules with 

 this number, but they are not required to be filled in and 

 returned until after the breeding-season. 



The Editors. 



