PREFACE. 
Deprived in one year of the invaluable assistance afforded by 
the snpervision of Professor I^ewton, and of the co-operation of 
Dr. GuNTHEE in so many and such important special groups as 
Mammalia, Reptilia, and Pisces — the record of vrhich it bas been 
absolutely impossible for him again to undertake, owing to the 
great increase of duties caused by his promotion to the office of 
Keeper of the Natural History Department of the British Museum 
— the task of editing the present volume has been no light one. 
I have, however, been fortunate enougb to secure the assistance of 
Mr. Alston in the first of these groups ; and of Mr. O'Shaughnessy 
in the Beptilia and Pisces — the latter gentleman's work being the 
more valuable, as he has in its preparation been enabled, from his 
position in the British Museum, to consult Dr. Gtinther on various 
points. To these gentlemen and to Dr. Giinther I desire to offer 
my best thanks, and I have also to thank the other Recorders for 
their continued co-operation. 
Various circumstances have prevented me from bringing out the 
present volume within a less period than that occupied in the pre- 
paration of its predecessors ; but I trust to be able to publish the 
next within a shorter interval. 
It is at once a pleasure and a duty for me to acknowledge a further 
grant of £100 towards the expenses of this volume from the British 
Association for the Advancement of Science, and of a special con- 
tribution for the same purpose of £50 from the Council of the 
Zoological Society of London (the interest of the Davis Bequest, 
formerly applied in like manner on more than one occasion, having 
been appropriated for other Zoological purposes). I have also 
to acknowledge the grant (for the first time since the publication 
of this Record) by the Government Grant Committee of the 
Royal Society, of £100 out of the sum annually voted by Parlia- 
