PREFACE 



" Many waters cannot quench love ; " neither can the space which 

 separates me from my readers in any degree diminish the cordial 

 goodwill I feel for them. For months I look forward to this address 

 as to a pleasant meeting with friends, for such I consider all who read 

 the * Zoologist : ' and it is the prayer of my heart that nothing may 

 ever interrupt the enjoyment T always experience when the meeting 

 at last takes place ; when in imagination I grasp a thousand friendly 

 hands ; when I see the smile of approbation illuminating a thousand 

 friendly countenances. At such a moment I reap the reward of a 

 twelvemonth's labour, for labour assuredly it is, albeit a labour of love. 

 An Editor's task is not always an easy one : he has his trials : the 

 inexorable first of every month arrives with a certainty and precision 

 that throws railway punctuality into the shade: it takes no account of 

 joy or of sorrow; of sickness or of health ; of occupation or of leisure ; 

 of abundance or of dearth as regards contributions : it demands the 

 new number, and will take no refusal — will accept no excuse. Nay ! 

 it is still more unreasonable, it will listen to no argument, however 

 convincing: it is blind to circumstance; deaf to reason. Then again, 

 there is the invidious task of selection, the most distasteful of all an 

 Editor's duties : in the largeness of his love he would reject nothing, 

 but there is a power that he must obey ; a very fastidious power too ; 

 a censorial power that can inflict the punishment of fine ; that can 

 enforce its criticisms by an argument addressed to the purse-strings : 

 though he were overflowing with the cream of human kindness, an 

 Editor must wince a little under the infliction of censure undeserved, 



