INTRODUCTION. 



The study of Natural History has altered much both in character and 

 methods in recent years. Botany and the other branches of natural 

 science no longer consist of the mere collecting, preserving, classifying, 

 and naming — the indexing, so to speak — of natural objects ; but in 

 observing the development, life-history, and periodical phenomena of 

 such objects, their modifications under natural and artificial conditions, 

 and the relations they bear to each other and to the pleasures and wants 

 of mankind. The analytical methods of studying natural history are 

 giving place to the synthetical, and, instead of pulling plants in pieces, 

 and anatomizing animals to ascertain their minute physical differences, 

 attention is being directed to their relationship to each other, and to the 

 forces and agencies by which living things are developed, built up, pre- 

 served, and reproduced. 



Of the many attractions of rural life — and, to a certain extent, of urban 

 and suburban life also — none are more interesting and instructive, nor 

 more frequently the subject of observation and record, than the periodic 

 phenomena associated with plants and animals ; and to persons engaged 

 in rural occupations, none are of greater ^"importance, nor the source of 

 so much anxiety. The germination of seeds, the leafing, blossoming, 

 ripening of fruit and seeds, and the change and fall of the leaves of 

 plants and trees; the migration, song, and nesting of birds; the appear- 

 ance of insects and their larvae; the habits and instincts of animals, &c., 

 are all phenomena of this kind; and, being dependent on seasonal and 

 meteorological conditions, are largely correlated or dependent on each 

 other, and, to be properly understood, must be studied together. It is to 

 promote the study of rural biology on this broad basis that I have com- 

 piled the Diary. I have adopted the title of " Naturalist's Diary " as one 

 which is quite familiar to students of natural history, but the book is 

 much more than a mere diary. It is a serious attempt on a large scale to. 

 show the correlation or interdependence of a wide range of natural phe- 

 nomena, on a plan which has not hitherto been attempted. Observations- 

 of the kind which are embodied in the pages of the Diary, and which 



