PREFACE. 
Various unforeseen causes have considerably delayed the publication of the 
following series of papers, which form the Transactions of the Perthshire Society 
of Natural Science for the Winter Session of 1892-93. They do not, as is usually 
the case with the Transactions of a Scientific Society, consist of detached papers 
having little or no connection with each other, but are intended to supplement 
one another, and, as far as possible, to form a connected whole. Their scope, 
and the purpose they were designed to fulfil, will be best explained by quoting the 
remarks of the President, Mr. Henry Coates, in his Opening Address at the 
beginning of the Session in which they were read. He said, “They (the Council) 
have arranged these in the belief that S3'stematic and combined research is likely 
to give more valuable results than are to be expected from isolated and individual 
study. It must not be supposed, however, that these papers will be at all final or 
exhaustive in their nature. It is not possible, and perhaps not desirable, that 
they should be. In several of the departments they will be merely preliminary 
reports, laying down the lines upon which future investigation may proceed. It 
is intended to confine the scope of the papers to the Tay proper, exclusive of its 
tributaries, from where it leaves Loch Tay at Kenmore to Invergowrie, where it 
leaves the boundaries of Perthshire. Laterally, the area will embrace the im¬ 
mediate banks, as well as the lowest or most recent river terrace, including, 
of course, the river itself and its bed.” 
It is not pretended, therefore, that the present series of papers gives anything 
like a complete account of the Natural History of the Tay and its banks. Very 
many blanks remain to be filled up. In the Botany, for example, only the flower¬ 
ing plants have been described ; the whole vast field of lower plant life has yet to 
be entered upon. Not even a beginning has been made in the great subject 
of Insect life; whilst, in the department of Animal Vertebrates, it is to be 
lamented that the important section of the Fishes has had to be left out. Much 
work, therefore, still awaits the members of the Society, but we feel confident 
that they will face it manfully. 
But though they by no means cover the whole field of investigation, the 
present papers are the result of careful and systematic study, and form a real 
contribution to our knowledge of the subject. Some of them could only have 
been written after long years of patient and intelligent observation. It is hoped, 
therefore, that they will be found to be interesting and helpful by those who take 
an interest in Natural Science. 
WILLIAM BARCLAY, 
Editor. 
Perth, September ^ iSgp . 
