PREFACE 



I HAVE given the title of " Round the Year " to a 

 series of sketches suggested by the natural events of 

 the year 1895. The principles of selection have been 

 simple : I have written upon things which happened 

 to interest me at the time, which seemed to admit of 

 popular treatment, and which had not been fully 

 discussed, so far as I knew, in elementary books. 

 Another naturalist would have made a different 

 choice ; all the naturalists in the world could not 

 exhaust the subject. 



The readers whom I hope to find are observers 

 (especially young observers) of out-of-door nature, 

 teachers of elementary science, and all who care 

 for Live Natural History. 



L. C. M. 



LEEDS, June, 1896. 



