PREFACE. 
--♦- 
mHE thirty-ninth Volume of the Zoological Record is a 
little later in appearance than usual owing to some un¬ 
expected changes in the staff. 
Professor J. A. Thomson decided, to our great regret, that 
his remoteness from the larger libraries compelled him to retire 
from the compilation of “ General Subjects.” As he has carried 
on this department without any interruption since its inception 
in 1886 , his resignation was felt to be unusually serious, and 
the Editor has undertaken the work this year with the hope of 
minimising so far as possible the loss of Professor Thomson’s 
services. 
During the summer Mr A. W. Brown, in consequence of 
his distance from libraries, and of sickness in his family, found 
that he could not continue his Recordership; and his share 
of the work has been^ divided between Dr W. T. Caiman and 
Mr H. M. Woodcock ; both of whom have had—it is only fair 
to say—too short a period for the preparation of their work. 
Professor Herdman found that his multifarious duties pre- 
vented him from compiling the Tunicata Record; and Dr Caiman 
has placed us under an additional obligation by undertaking 
this section in addition to the groups of Arthropoda he had 
already taken in hand. 
Several of the Recorders have called attention to the 
difficulties we experience in obtaining the literature of our 
