PREFACE. 
IX 
priated to them ; yet it is obvious that the shelves 
are for the sake of the objects, not the objects for 
the sake of the shelves. The means, however, are 
too often treated as if they were the end. 
The efforts of many naturalists, naturalists in the 
proper sense of the word, have been and are directed 
zealously towards the right object, a real knowledge 
of animals. Many have followed in the steps of the 
venerable Gilbert White, and have discovered thou- 
sands of facts of the highest interest, which they 
have communicated in graphic language. We con- 
sequently possess the living portraitures of many 
animals, drawn from life, and depicted with a master’s 
hand. Most of the animals of Europe, at least the 
Vertehrata^ have been more or less studied at home, 
and the Birds of America have found worthy bio- 
graphers. But if we look at the expanded world 
beside, how little is really known of its living trea- 
sures ; how little even of the zoology of England’s 
vast colonial possessions ! 
The writer of the present volume has endeavoured 
to add a trifle to the amount of zoological knowledge. 
He lately paid a visit to Jamaica, one of the loveliest 
islands of the tropics, where the eighteen months of 
his sojourn were almost exclusively devoted to Na- 
tural History. The memoirs presented in the fol- 
lowing pages may claim at least one excellence, they 
were drawn up verbatim on the spot, in the midst of 
