2 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OF 



but is softened off and melted, as it were, into the 

 margins of the neighbouring territories; nor, in 

 most cases, is it easy or possible to say where the 

 one terminates and the next begins. In this respect 

 we are reminded of the divisions or classes of ani- 

 mated beings which are not sharply denned sections, 

 but battalions of similar creatures arrayed around 

 distinct types or banners, yet with many irregular 

 troops on the skirts of each, wearing no sufficiently 

 marked uniform, but so attired as now to be 

 claimed by the one, now by the other army. 



In this age of volumes, a man had needs offer 

 a good excuse before adding a new book, even 

 though it be a small one, to the heap already ac- 

 cumulated. He should either have something fresh 

 to say, or be able to tell that which is old in a new 

 and pleasanter way. Naturalists and others, whose 

 vocation is the prosecution of science, have an easier 

 task in this respect than their literary brethren. 

 Our volumes may be, and often, from the very- 

 nature of their themes, are, comparatively dry and 

 heavy. Yet the adding an ear, or even a grain of 

 wheat to the great granary of human knowledge, 

 whence the brains of future generations are to be 

 nourished, is some small service to the good cause 

 of enlightenment ; although we may fold it in un- 

 necessarily many sheets of paper, esteeming it pos- 

 sibly over much because we ourselves have gathered 

 it. How much of the following pages is good grain, 

 and how much husk, it is not for me to judge ; but 



