PREFACE. 



area — is now a recognized and valued form of scientific inquiry, as witness 

 the numerous committees of tlie British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science devoted to collecting observations of this kind. The subjects 

 embraced by the Diary are especially adapted for collective investigation, 

 both by independent observers and the members of the numerous Natural 

 History Societies and Field Clubs which exist throughout the country. 

 The subjects for inquiry have, moreover, the further recommendation of 

 being of local as well as general value, and observers in following them 

 out will have the satisfaction of reaping results which are of immediate 

 interest to themselves and their neighbours, as well as contributing to the 

 general store of facts, and the advancement of natural science. With a 

 view to extending the scope of the work and of securing the greater 

 accuracy of its contents, it is proposed to issue the Diary annually, and 

 to invite contributions of trustworthy observations to this end, all such 

 contributions to be made to the Editor of "The Naturalist's Diary," to 

 the care of the Publishers. 



I must here acknowledge my debt and record my thanks to the Rev. 

 T. A. Preston, M.A., F.R.MetSoc., the founder, and for sixteen years 

 President of the Marlborough College Natural History Society, for the 

 pu blished report s, and for many manuscript tables and notes relative to 

 the meteorologic'Srand botanical parts of the work. I must also express / 

 my thanks to Mr. John T. Carrington, F.L.S., for revising the index of ' 

 Lepidoptera and bringing it into conformity with the nomenclature as 

 present in use in this country and on the Continent. 



C. R. 



London, January \st, 1886. 



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