PREFACE. 
A word of explanation is necessary regarding the position which the present Volume 
occupies in the annals of the Society. In 1870 a small volume was published containing the 
Proceedings for the Session 1869-70. After that, a Magazine, the “Scottish Naturalist,” 
was started by the Society, so that separate Proceedings were not again published until 
the present series was commenced, in 1881, about which time the “Scottish Naturalist” 
was transferred to other hands. 
The Six Annual Parts which form this series have been denoted Volume I., but as 
it is not intended to continue the issue in its- present form, the Volume is complete in 
itself. 
These Proceedings have, for the most part, been reprinted from the reports of the 
meetings, &c., which have appeared in the “Perthshire Constitutional.” This is the 
cause of their being printed in double-column pages. But a more serious draw-back to 
the system was that the selection and arrangement of the matter which were most suited 
for newspaper publication were not always the best adapted for the Proceedings of a 
Scientific Society. The Council have, therefore, decided to" commence a new series of 
Transactions and Proceedings, which will be specially printed for the Society, under the 
supervision of a Publishing Committee. 
November, 1886. 
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