PKEFACE. 



On reviewing what has been published during the past 

 year in the pages of i The Zoologist,' it is sad to notice how 

 many fellow- workers and contributors to this journal have 

 been removed by the hand of death. Taking them in the 

 order in which their decease occurred, we have lost from 

 amongst us Mr. E. T. Booth, whose famous museum at 

 Brighton forms the subject of a notice in the present number; 

 Mr. John Henry Gurney, of Northrepps, Norfolk, the great 

 authority on raptorial birds from every quarter of the globe; 

 Mr. W. S. Dallas, the Assistant Secretary of the Geological 

 Society, and quondam Editor of the 'Popular Science Review'; 

 Professor William Kitchen Parker, one of the ablest anatomists 

 and physiologists of the day ; Mr. Cecil Smith, of Bishop's 

 Lydeard, near Taunton, author of the 'Birds of Somersetshire'; 

 and, quite recently, Mr. John Hancock, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 

 a well-known ornithologist and skilled taxidermist, of whom, 

 in the present number, our readers will find a biographical 

 memoir. Each has left his mark in his own particular line 

 of research, and the nature and extent of the contributions of 

 each to zoological science may be estimated from the obituary 

 notices which have appeared in this journal during the past 

 twelve months. 



Amongst the many interesting and useful articles which 

 have been published in 'The Zoologist' since the 1st January 

 last, special mention may be made of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke's 

 account of the Birds of Jan Mayen Island; Col. Feilden's 

 contribution on the Mammals of Barbados ; the reports of 

 Messrs. Southwell and A. H. Cocks on the Seal and Whale 

 Fisheries; Mr. Ussher's description of the breeding of the 

 Crossbill in Ireland, Mr. Cordeaux's account of the former 

 haunts of the Ruff and Reeve in Lincolnshire, Mr. Gurney's 



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