4 INTRODUCTORY. 



As little more has been attempted in the, following pages 

 than to treat the British Islands as one'izoological area, it 

 seems desirable to say a word in this place of the subdivi- 

 sions that might, in a more pretentious contribution to 

 the literature of their fauna, have been followed. 



These are two, the zoological and the political. Of the 



former, examples are found in the fens, moors, and forests ; 



the latter are of course the counties, and may 



reas, co i- ^ Q eas jj v dismissed, since they in no way corre- 

 spond with the zoological divisions. With the 

 great Australian colonies the case was, and is, different. 

 Their boundaries are, for the most part, natural, a lofty 

 range, a broad river, a deep strait ; and, as might be 

 expected, corresponding differences are to be observed in 

 their animal life, as, for instance, where the diamond- snake 

 of New South Wales is replaced in the other colonies by 

 that species, sub-species, or variety, the carpet-snake. In 

 England, however, we are confronted with few such natural 

 boundaries. The task of detailing the physical peculiarities 

 of each and every county its soil, its hills and valleys, its 

 water-courses, moors, marshes, and forests has devolved 

 upon the authors of those handbooks to county fauna, par- 

 ticulars of which will be found in the bibliography. It would, 

 no doubt, have been easy to gather from my own notes, 

 easier still to have compiled from the works in question, 

 supplemented by the Ordnance Survey maps, some account 

 of most shires in the kingdom. To take an example. 

 Sussex might have been contrasted with low, sandy, pine- 

 clad Hampshire on the one hand, and high, chalky, hop- 

 growing Kent on the other ; and some account must have 

 been taken of its three or four mentionable rivers, its 

 four harbours, the 5oo-feet fall of Beachy Head, the low- 

 lands near Pevensey and Pagham, the great oak-woods 

 scattered over the western half of the county, and the 

 beeches of Charlton and Goodwood. I have my own ideas, 

 however, of the function of the present sketch, an introduc- 

 tion or supplement, not a substitute, and I have therefore 



