PREFACE. 

Wits the close of the year 1889 the thirteenth volume 
of the Third Series of ‘The Zoologist’ is completed, and 
with the issue of the title-page and contents in the present 
number, the Editor takes the opportunity of thanking both 
contributors and subscribers for their continued support. 
He has on former occasions reminded them that ‘The 
Zoologist’ is what the contributors make it, and that it 
depends upon them to keep up the general standard of 
excellence, or at least of utility, which has characterized its 
existence for the past forty-six years. 
Everyone who has undertaken to publish an account of 
the fauna of the county or district in which he resides 
will be ready to admit that he has obtained more materials 
for his work from ‘The Zoologist’ than from any other 
source of information, excepting of course the collected notes 
of such competent observers as may have assisted him within 
the area of his researches. 
This of itself should operate as an encouragement to those 
who, having observed some interesting fact, hesitate to com- 
municate it for fear it may be too well known to deserve 
publication. 
It is sometimes as important to confirm an observation 
as it is to announce it for the first time, and on this 
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