xii STUDIES IN THE EVOLUTION OF ANIMALS 



unavoidable though wearisome repetitions. Moreover, I am not 

 aware that there is any particular sin in a little repetition. The 

 reader after all is not so sacred a thing as not to be subjected 

 on any account to a little tedium. Some little allowance then, 

 I suppose, may be made for the ' personal equation ' of the 

 writer ! 



I do not know a better method for fixing notions on the 

 reader's convolutions — more especially if he or she is not easily 

 convinced — than by ' hammering ' on the same subject in different 

 ways, in order to make an impression. Few people who may 

 be tempted to open a book do so with the spirit of the student 

 who endeavours to master the meaning and points therein 

 contained. The majority of persons who take up a book want 

 to be amused, distracted, or somehow entertained, and few are 

 the books on evolutionary studies which can satisfy either of 

 these cravings. 



Inferences cannot be safely drawn from any particular speci- 

 men ; the larger the number of specimens on which an inference 

 is based, the more soundness will it be likely to possess. 



Where too much detail might seem tedious to the expert, 

 I would note that it is intended for the general reader who may 

 be tempted to dip into these subjects, and who may not have 

 given much attention to such matters. 



If found tedious, whole pages may be skipped by the expert. 



I believe that this is the first time that any attempt has been 

 made to study the markings of mammals in detail, with the 

 view of reaching what seems to be the real, or at all events the 

 proximate, cause of their existence. Mr. Tylor and Mr. Poulton, 



