IN TROD UCTION 



bors, when brought together, com- 

 pared, and considered, around the 

 open fire of a wintry evening, or in 

 an occasional half-hour in the school- 

 room, might go far not only to revive 

 the sense of the past summer, but 

 might make no mean substitute for a 

 session of a local society of natural 

 history ; or that an interchange of 

 such annotated books between per- 

 sons living in different places and 

 conditions might furnish hours of 

 profitable enjoyment to both, and be 

 mutually stimulative in a high de- 

 gree; or even that a "nature study" 

 class might make capital of last 

 year's well-filled volumes in carrying 

 on the present year's work. 



In fact, if you will regard the printed 

 part as nothing more than my begin- 

 ning, and will complete it and correct 

 it for your ow^n locality in the blank 

 spaces left to you for that purpose, 

 you may find yours the better half of 

 the book, and I shall not begrudge you 

 either the esteem or the glory of it. 



Snfoxmation fox exckangi 



H/ouzd the better half of the Iwoh, itj 

 likely ad not. 



In making this little book I have 

 received assistance from several per- 

 sons, whose help I wish gratefully 

 to acknowledge. 



