©ftt Paling llatmtalist: 



A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 9. 



DECEMBER 27th, 1879. 



Vol.1, 



GOOD RESOLUTIONS. 



WERY many people, and especially 

 young ones, make all sorts of 

 good resolutions at the close of a year, 

 that they may do better in the year upon 

 which they are just entering. As this is 

 the last time we shall address our readers 

 this year we cannot do better than make 

 some good resolutions ourselves, and also 

 suggest some to our readers. If those 

 who conduct the Magazine are not so 

 young as they once wer^ the Magazine 

 itself, only two months old, is scarcely old 

 enough even to think for itself, and we 

 must speak of it in the way of sponsors. 

 The partiality of kind friends has been : 

 much that very little fault has been found 

 with us so far, and our first resolution 

 must be to endeavour in the future to give 

 greater satisfaction if it be in our power. 

 The main fault that has been found is that 

 we give too much attention to Entomology. 

 But it was our intention from the first, and I 

 announced in our preliminary notices, that 

 Entomology would be the main feature of 

 our pages. Our chief object being to 

 encourage beginners in Natural History 

 studies we were bound to give most promi- 

 nence to those branches that past ex- 



perience has shown to be most attractive. 

 Did we fill the bulk of our pages with 

 essays on — well, we had better not say 

 what we think the dryer branches — but 

 with less favourite subjects, we doubt 

 whether we would succeed in encouraging 

 beginners as we desire to do. Hence we 

 have purposely given prominence to those 

 favourites of young people — Birds' Eggs 

 and Butterflies. Our good resolution on 

 this point must be then that we will en- 

 deavour to give greater variety in our 

 subjects, though not less on these specially 

 favoured ones. The next fault that has 

 been found is that our Magazine is very 

 small for the money. We doubt those 

 who make the complaint have compared 

 it with those papers that by pandering to 

 the taste for highly flavoured fiction, get 

 an enormous circulation, and are thus able 

 to give more for the money. It is all a 

 matter of pounds, shillings, and pence. 

 At present we are losing a respectable sum 

 each week, and we have the opportunity 

 of decreasing our loss by appropriating a 

 portion of our pages to advertisements. 

 We have refused so far to take more than 

 the back page for this purpose, but have 

 it in contemplation to add four pages for 

 advertisements, which will give us the 



