PREFACE. 
In taking a retrospective glance at the contents of ‘The 
Zoologist’ for 1878, it is satisfactory to note that the suggestions 
made in the Preface to the volume for the preceding year have 
found favour in the eyes of contributors. Although, as of yore, 
Ornithology has received a considerable share of attention, other 
branches of Natural History have not been neglected, and the 
many interesting observations on Mammals, Fishes and Crustacea 
which haye been recorded during the year 1878 in these pages 
show how much there was to gather, how much still remains to 
be gleaned, even in the circumscribed field of British Zoology. 
The increased attention paid of late to the Natural History 
of Ireland has resulted in the discovery there, during the past 
summer, of two species, the Tree Pipit (p. 348) and the Red- 
backed Shrike (p. 487), which were not previously known to visit 
the Sister Isle; while a third species, the Wood Wren (p. 348) 
has been found to be of more frequent occurrence there as a local 
summer visitant than has hitherto been shown to be the case. 
The exceptional appearance of the American Snow Goose, 
Anser albatus, for at least the second time, in Ireland (p. 419), 
is a circumstance of no little interest to ornithologists. Nor 
should Dr. Bureau’s valuable paper on the seasonal change which 
takes place in the bill of the Common Puffin (p. 233) be passed 
over in silence. The careful observations made by him on this 
subject have resulted in the elucidation of a very singular meta- 
morphosis, which, if not unsuspected,* has at all events only now, 
through his instrumentality, been fully realized and understood. 
* In Bingley’s ‘North Wales ; including its Scenery, Antiquities and Customs 
and some Sketches of its Natural History,’ published in 1804, an interesting account 
is given (vol.i., pp. 348—354) of the habits of the Puffin as observed in the island of 
Priestholme, off the coast of Anglesea, where the author saw “ upwards of fifty acres 
of land literally covered with these birds.” After describing both old and young, he 
remarks (p. 354) that “ Puffins do not breed till they are three years old, and they 
- are said to change their bills annually.” This statement occurs in nearly the same 
words in ‘A Tour round North Wales, during the summer of 1798, by the same 
author, vol. i., p. 809 (1800), where a much briefer account of the Puffin is given, 
admittedly borrowed from Pennant, who in turn derived his information from the 
Rey. Mr. Davies, of Aber, sometime resident at Beaumaris. 
