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EDITOR'S PREFACE 
THESE little volumes have been planned to fill 
what is thought to be a gap in modern Natural 
History literature between the more advanced 
manuals for adult readers and the one-syllable 
picture-books of the nursery. As a matter of 
fact, the keenest students of Nature at first hand 
are probably boys, who do not want to be insulted 
by the one or puzzled by the other. 
While every attempt has been made to avoid 
all purely technical matters, and to explain any 
term not in everyday use, the authors have by 
no means affected the extreme simplicity of 
argument adopted in so many works of the 
kind. At the same time, the Editor will be 
only too glad to give any further explanations 
in his power, or to correspond with any readers 
on subjects of sufficient interest in which they 
= may find difficulties. 
