﻿2 



Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



rich in papers and records relating to the Fauna of the Firth 

 of Forth and the surrounding country. 



Our present and, as I hope to show, wonderfully extensive 

 knowledge of the Fauna of the Forth Area is the outcome 

 not of any organised scheme, but of the independent labours 

 of many naturalists and collectors during the past hundred 

 or more years ; indeed, its origin may be placed as far back 

 even as Sir Eoberfc Sibbald's time, about the end of the 

 seventeenth century. Consequently, its growth has been 

 very erratic and uneven ; in the main, no doubt, a reflection 

 of the progress of British zoology in general, though too 

 often lagging far behind. All the same, much has been 

 accomplished. A mere list of the names of those who have 

 furnished records for the building up of the faunal account 

 of this area, and of the channels through which they have 

 made known their observations, would fill many pages. The 

 Proceedings, etc., of Societies, Magazines of Natural History, 

 and other serial literature, most of them running to many 

 volumes, into which papers or notes have found their way, 

 number over fifty, while equally numerous are the separately 

 published books and monographs from which records are to 

 be culled. If this voluminous literature could be exhaustively 

 examined, and the records systematically extracted, arranged, 

 and published, no one would rejoice more than myself ; but 

 I confess I see no immediate prospect of such an under- 

 taking being begun, far less completed.^ Co-operation among 

 the societies and individuals interested in the subject, and 

 the command of sufficient funds, are essential, and neither 

 is easily secured, though I do not say unobtainable should 

 an enthusiast take the matter up. Meanwhile, we suffer 

 from the want of a guide to what has been done in the 

 faunistic investigation of the area, and it is with the object 

 of in some degree supplying this want, and pointing the 

 way to further work, that the present review has been 

 prepared. Although all the likely sources of information 

 have been referred to at one time or another, and I hope 

 without anything of importance being overlooked, it must 

 not be supposed that I have gone methodically through each, 



^ Should such a bibliography ever be undertaken, it would be a great pity 

 to confine it to one area : it should embrace all the Scottish areas. 



