PREFACE. 
The twenty-eighth volume of the Zoological Record resembles 
its predecessors in method and arrangement. That it appears 
somewhat earlier than usual is due to the willing exertions of the 
Recorders. As they have had an unusually short period for the 
execution of their work, the thanks of Zoologists will no doubt be 
awarded to them for their efforts. Such thanks are due to all the 
Recorders, but more particularly to Messrs. Lydekker and Boulenger 
and to Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, who furnished their records very early 
in the present year, without, as it is believed, detriment to the 
completeness or to the careful execution of their work. Special 
thanks are also due to Mr. B. B. Woodward, who has given us an 
excellent record of Mollusca at very short notice, and under circum- 
stances that rendered his task more than usually arduous. 
An alteration has been made in the title-page in order that it 
may more accurately describe the contents of the volume to which 
it is prefixed. It is hoped that the slight difference of procedure 
indicated by this change will promote a more punctual appearance 
of the yearly volume. 
Although the Record is published annually, and is thus, broadly 
speaking, a record of the Zoological Literature of one year, yet the 
attempt to make a volume include the whole literature of the 
particular year of the calendar of which it bears the number has 
always failed. The difficulties likely to arise from the endeavour 
to make one yearly volume of the Record accurately representative 
of the literature of one particular year, were foreshadowed in Dr. 
Gunther’s preface to the first volume, and have since become 
