2 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Some changes will take place in our pages. The official 

 reports of the meetings of Natural History Societies will be 

 discontinued. These are fully published in other journals both 

 weekly and monthly, and much of the space now devoted to 

 the same will be utilized for more original matter. The Editor, 

 however, will always be glad to receive and insert notes recording 

 facts and subjects of special interest which have been brought 

 forward at the meetings of our Natural History Societies, and 

 these may prove of a more readable, explanatory, and less 

 technical character than must perforce be the nature of a 

 bald abstract of the whole proceedings of a Society's meeting. 

 Not only is it hoped to fill any lacuna that may thus occur 

 with more general zoological information, but with the support 

 of contributors to even increase the size of the publication. 



A Zoology which excludes Homo is like ' Hamlet' without 

 the Prince of Denmark. ''Early Man in Britain" proclaims his 

 identity to the out- door naturalist who comes across the ancient 

 Barrow as well as the more recent Mound. His flint implements 

 still remain in evidence, and often in conjunction with the debris 

 of an extinct fauna which no Zoology can disregard. The fauna 

 of the present cannot altogether be studied without reference to 

 that of the past ; and just as the paleontologist must have some 

 zoological training, so the zoologist cannot dismiss and consign 

 to a purely geological standpoint the animals — especially the 

 British animals— of a past era. Prehistoric Man is now at least 

 a reality, and not a theory ; he existed with, and was part of, a 

 phase of animal life which is only separated from that of to-day 

 in degree and not in kind. It is therefore hoped that in our 

 pages maybe found contributions — so far as these islands are 

 concerned — as to his past history, his physical peculiarities, and 

 his connection with our old British fauna. General treatises on 

 Anthropology are not desiderated, but it is desired to secure 

 records of where his presence can be maintained. 



Living in the age — nay, the atmosphere — of Darwin and 

 Wallace, it is impossible to disregard those generalizations 

 which add philosophy to the science and charm to the subject. 

 Not only do we care to know how animals are as we see them, 

 but also to trace the modifications which have so largely in- 

 fluenced their present appearance. Evolution is not only a 



