P R E FACE 



The completion of another volume of ' The Zoologist ' shows 

 no diminution in the ranks of students of our British Fauna. 

 The numbers of our contributors are practically an exact equiva- 

 lent of those who produced the previous volume. Some we shall 

 not hear from again, and we cannot help recurring to the loss 

 of our old and valued contributor — John Cordeaux. 



The Mammalia have not been neglected, and many original 

 facts and observations have been published during the present 

 year. Mr. Oldham's description of "The Mode in which Bats 

 secure their Prey " is of permanent value. We have been enabled 

 to give a good figure of the " Sea-Elephant" (Macrorhinns 

 elephantinus) , while the description of the Trek-bokke (Gazella 

 euchore) refers to an animal which, owing to the destructiveness 

 of man, will never be seen in its vast herds again. 



Ornithology is the strength of the volume. It is unnecessary 

 to detail any particulars among the many observations which 

 have made ' The Zoologist' for 1899, as in all previous volumes, 

 a special storehouse for facts in avian bionomics. We cannot, 

 however, ignore Mr. Edmund Selous' " Observational Diary of 

 the Habits of Nightjars." This is a unique publication, which 

 seems to alone recall Prof. Mills' method in his " Psychic 

 Development of Young Animals," published originally in the 

 ' Transactions ' of the Eoyal Society of Canada. The many 

 necessary discussions which have appeared in our " Notes and 

 Queries" maybe instanced by that on the " Nesting Habits of 

 the Moor-hen." 



In Keptilia, Mr. G. T. Eope has given us the results of his 

 observations on the Common Toad (Bufo vulgaris), and Mr. 

 Monk has written an excellent account of the spawning of 



