INTRODUCTION. 



The principal objects of the Zoological Journal have 

 already been stated in the Prospectus which preceded its 

 publication, but it may be well to recapitulate them in this 

 short introduction to our first number, which we have at 

 length the honour of submittincr to our subscribers. Some 

 apology, however, may first be necessary for the delay 

 which has taken place in its appearance. When we origi- 

 nally announced it for the first day of the present year, we 

 were confident that it would be in our power to redeem our 

 pledge, but circumstances occurred that compelled us, how- 

 ever unwillingly, to })ostpone the publication to the 1st of 

 March. 



It is not necessary to dwell on the utility of works of this 

 nature, the store-houses as tliey may be called of the natural 

 sciences, where a multitude of new and interesting facts are 

 daily presei-ved, which might otherwise remain in the bo- 

 soms of their discoverers, or only be partially dispersed 

 through small circles by the vague and often inaccurate me- 

 thod of oral conununication. The usefulness of periodical 

 journals is indeed amply attested by the numbers that weekly, 

 monthly, and quarterly issue from the press ; the want of a 

 journal exclusively devoted to Zoology in all its branches, 



