EDITORIAL ADDRESS. 3 



subject which, in some form or other, is coeval with thinking 

 man, however crude and wild some early hypotheses may have 

 been, but it is now the established corner-stone of the zoological 

 edifice. There may be much pure guessing, considerable theo- 

 retical sack without much bread of fact ; but to abstain from all 

 theory is equivalent to discarding the method of Darwin, to 

 ignoring the speculation of a Humboldt. The Editor therefore 

 hopes to receive the thought-out conclusions of contributors on 

 the facts acquired in, and by, their special studies and observa- 

 tions, which may be qualified in the words of Treviranus, who 

 prefaced his speculative opinions in these words : — " The author 

 will give opinion and theory a place in this work, but he is far 

 from those who give their dreams and fancies a reality and 

 permanence, believing that his own theories may perish, and 

 hoping to direct the current of thought in Biology to adapt itself 

 to Nature, and not make Nature adapt itself to the current of 

 thought." 



If, however, facts are made more philosophical by generali- 

 zation, it is clear that all speculation must and should depend 

 on facts, and it is expected that ' The Zoologist ' will in the future, 

 as it has done in the past, prove a storehouse of the same, a 

 journal worthy of the observations that immortalized Gilbert 

 White and canonized Eichard Jefferies. Its pages are open to 

 record all observations, the only conditions being that such records 

 shall be original, and the species to which they apply accurately 

 determined. With all our knowledge of Natural History it is 

 almost phenomenal how little is still known of the life-histories 

 of many living creatures inhabiting even these islands, while 

 with scarcely an exception there are no animals from which we 

 cannot learn by intelligent observation. The ornithologists have 

 worthily borne the heat and burden of the day in preceding- 

 volumes; it is to be hoped that their good example may be 

 followed in other branches of our varied fauna. ' The Zoologist' 

 invites the help of the successors and disciples of Yarrell, Bell, 

 and Bay, of Knapp, " Kusticus," and Buckland. 



In our pages a special interest will attach to Museum notes. 

 It is of importance to zoologists to be reminded or informed in 

 what institution or private museum the collections made by 

 travelling and home naturalists are deposited ; it is of even 



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