vi PREFATORY NOTE 



attach to these Notes and Observations owing to 

 their dealing with a period during which great 

 changes have taken place in the habitat of the 

 Local Fauna. They photograph and preserve, as 

 it were, much that future Naturalists may not 

 even hope to meet with. 



The Notes are arranged not so much systematically 

 as chronologically. I have begun with almost my 

 first "Entry" in 1878, since which time I have 

 made it the concluding task of each day to jot 

 down anything worth noting that has occurred. 

 It may not be superfluous to add that so far as 

 love of the observation of Natural Phenomena is 

 concerned, it must have been born with me. My 

 earliest remembered toddles were in pursuit of 

 the crawling, fluttering, flying things around me. 

 Somewhat unfortunately, my hours of leisure and 

 recreation were, until very recently, exceedingly 

 scanty, and my rambles had perforce to be taken 

 either before seven in the morning or after that 

 hour in the evening. 



It will be noticed that in the Notes dates have 

 been freely given; this will be useful, perhaps, to 



