INTRODUCTION". 



BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR. 



IT is now nearly five-and-twenty years since the " Jour- 

 nal of a Naturalist" first appeared in England. The 

 author, Mr. Knapp, has told us himself that the book owes 

 its origin to the " Natural History of Selborne," a work of 

 the last century, which it is quite needless to say has be- 

 come one of the standards of English literature ; and the 

 reader is probably also aware that the honors acceded to 

 the disciple are, in this instance, scarcely less than those of 

 his master the Journal of a Naturalist, and Selborne, 

 stand side by side, on the same shelf, in the better 

 libraries of England. 



Both volumes belong to a choice class ; they are to be 

 numbered among the books which have been written 

 neither for fame nor for profit, but which have opened 

 spontaneously, one might almost say unconsciously, from 

 the author's mind. The subjects on which they touch 

 are such as must always prove interesting in themselves; 

 like the grass of the field, and the trees of the wood, the 



