■2. 



PEEFACE 



The illustrations of this and former volumes require 

 a few words of comment. There are high authorities 

 who may demur to the departure I have made from 

 precedent as to the posing of my figures. It has been 

 said that many fine plates of animals and plants have 

 been rendered useless to science by the artistic render- 

 ing of a graceful attitude or an elegant curve — that 

 the figure for science, again, should be representative 

 or, to a certain extent, abstract. Biological illustra- 

 tions certainly are not meant to please the eye alone. 

 Yet no gain can be had by mere naked unclothed facts 

 in drawing, and if all art is to be eliminated from 

 science many will turn with disgust from that which 

 by a better treatment would please. The natural pose 

 of a bird or reptile can always be connected by an 

 efficient artist with such scientific details as are capable 

 of being rendered in the external form. Where the 

 camera is employed this posing is inseparable from the 

 representation of living insects ; and after all, notwith- 

 standing that the views are necessarily perspective, 

 measurements may be made from them as reliably as 

 from ordinary eye drawings. 



