IV 
PREFACli. 
this index periodically every third or fifth year^ with the refer- 
ences to the three or five preceding volumes. Considering the 
great divergence in the views of zoologists respecting families, 
an alphabetical index of family names (suggested by others) 
might have more frequently proved a source of disappointment 
than a help. The Editor has therefore been satisfied with add- 
ing to the list of contents such details as appeared to be really 
calculated to facilitate reference to the volume. 
The Editor has succeeded in obtaining the cooperation of 
Professor E. Perceval Wright, of Dublin, who has undertaken 
the Records on the lower animals, and has added those on 
Coelenterata and Protozoa^ omitted in the volume for 1864. 
He expresses his thanks to the authors who have kindly sent 
early copies of their publications. As regards separate reprints 
of papers from Journals, Proceedings, or Transactions of learned 
societies, he would, on this occasion, suggest that a most 
excellent plan, adopted for many years by the K. K. Zoolog.- 
botanische Gesellschaft of Vienna, and lately by the Zoological 
Society of London, should be more generally followed, viz. that 
of indicating the original pagination either at the bottom of the 
pages or at the top within brackets. The value of separate 
copies is much increased thereby, as the time wasted in search- 
ing for the original pages is saved. 
The fact that this year the contributors have had to report 
on about 10,000 pages more than last year will sufficiently 
account for the excess of the number of pages of this volume 
beyond the original estimate ; and if some authors should think 
the notices of their publications too short, the responsibility 
rests less with the Recorder than with the Editor, who has 
spared no efforts to keep the volume within reasonable limits, 
frequently inducing a Recorder to shorten his abstracts of de- 
scriptive or systematic matter. The Editor does not think that 
the ^ Record ^ will lose in value if, in future, such general works 
or memoirs as are indispensable to the student should be treated 
with less completeness of detail, by omitting diagnoses of 
genera, and by indicating the systematic attempts without add- 
