PREFACE. IX 



priated to them ; yet it is obvious that the shelves 

 are for the sake of the objects, not the objects for 

 the sake of the shelves. The means, however, are 

 too often treated as if they were the end. 



The eiforts of many naturahsts, naturahsts in the 

 proper sense of the word, have been and are directed 

 zealously towards the right object, a real knowledge 

 of animals. Many have followed in the steps of the 

 venerable Gilbert "White, and have discovered thou- 

 sands of facts of the highest interest, which they 

 have communicated in graphic language. We con- 

 sequently possess the living portraitures of many 

 animals, drawn from life, and depicted with a master's 

 hand. Most of the animals of Europe, at least the 

 Vertehrata, have been more or less studied at home, 

 and the Birds of America have found worthy bio- 

 graphers. But if we look at the expanded world 

 beside, how little is really known of its living trea- 

 sures ; how little even of the zoology of England's 

 vast colonial possessions ! 



The writer of the present volume has endeavoured 

 to add a trifle to the amount of zoological knowledge. 

 He lately paid a visit to Jamaica, one of the lovehest 

 islands of the tropics, where the eighteen months of 

 his sojourn were almost exclusively devoted to Na- 

 tural History. The memoirs presented in the fol- 

 lowing pages may claim at least one excellence, they 

 were drawn up verbatim on the spot, in the midst of 



