PREFACE. 



The preparation of the Index to the volume for the closing 

 year 1891 suggests many points for reflection, to some of which 

 it may be well to refer. 



And first, one cannot repress a feeling of sadness at the loss 

 of those friends and contributors to zoological science who have 

 been taken from amongst us during the past twelve months. 

 We have had to deplore the death of such well-known scientists 

 as the late Prof. Martin Duncan, Dr. P. H. Carpenter, and 

 Prof. H. N. Moseley, and of such old and valued correspondents 

 as the late Mr. Thomas Cornish and the Kev. T. H. Frere. 



But although their names have dropped out from the list of 

 living zoologists, the work which each has done in his own 

 particular line (whether it be important original research, or the 

 patient collection of observed facts) will live in the memory of 

 fellow-workers, and in the annals of Zoology. 



In other respects the past year for us has been calm and 

 uneventful. From the numerous communications which con- 

 tinue to reach us from all quarters, it is evident that the study 

 of Natural History has lost none of its charm, and we are glad 

 to welcome every year the advent of fresh workers in the field of 

 Zoology. The Editor trusts that in the year to come he may 

 count upon the cordial support which has hitherto been accorded 

 to him, while he on his part will endeavour still further to 

 increase the utility of a Journal which for more than forty years 

 past has been regarded as a storehouse for accumulating the 

 results of the out-door observation of animals, and a medium 

 of communication for field-naturalists. It has been hinted 

 by friendly critics that the pages of ' The Zoologist ' contain 

 perhaps rather too much Ornithology to the exclusion of other 

 branches of Zoology. But this only indicates the taste of a 

 large number of contributors. Certainly if the Editor were 



