PREFACE. 
Once a year the appearance of Title Page and Index 
enables the editors of the “ Midland Naturalist” to temporarily 
establish personal relations with its contributors, subscribers, 
and readers. A great many people—how many the list of 
contributors only partially shows—share in the labour of 
laying its monthly numbers before the public, and amongst 
these the editors are far from the most hardly worked. It is 
meet, then, that we should, as most gratefully and willingly 
we do, express our own indebtedness, as well as that of 
the general body of readers, for the hearty assistance without 
which it would be impossible to maintain the issue of our 
monthly numbers. Both to old and tried fellow-workers, 
who have stood by us from the beginning, and to the 
recruits who year by year are added to our ranks, we desire 
to offer this expression of our gratitude, and, we may add, 
also of our hopes. 
But though the labour of producing the “ Midland 
Naturalist ” is shared by many, the responsibility is borne 
by the editors alone, and how anxious this responsibility is 
few of our readers can know. A Magazine which has com¬ 
pleted ten years of active useful life ought to be out of the 
reach of accident, and the only care weighing upon its con¬ 
ductors ought to be that of properly editing the materials at 
their disposal. This is, however, very far from being the 
case, and it is fully within the power of our readers to 
relieve us of the more anxious part of our responsibility. 
Contributors and subscribers alike are needed. We are quite 
sure that our pages could be made far more interesting and 
far more valuable, but we cannot do it ourselves. We are not 
ubiquitous ; we should only be a nuisance if we were ; but in 
the Midland district, at any rate, our readers are well-nigh 
everywhere, and it is not unfair to ask them to try to repay 
the pleasure they receive from the observations of others, by 
contributing their own observations to enhance other people’s 
pleasure, and to broaden the general knowledge. Every 
accurate observer is a potential public benefactor. 
