INTRODUCTION. 
\ 
__ Avy effort to revive the pre-Darwinian spirit of the study of 
' nature is to be commended, and the republication of White’s 
‘Natural History of Selborne as an aid to this awakening will 
__ be one of the strongest helps. The younger students engaged 
in section cutting, the tracing of cell lineage and the like, have 
never known the simple charms of collecting and observing the . 
habits and behaviors of animals. Their only knowledge of 
animals oftentimes comes to them in the laboratory and here 
_ the creatures hardened in alcohol or with tissues topographically 
mapped out with staining fluid, give little indication of their 
_ appearance in life. 
_ The older naturalist who is equally interested in the methods 
and results of modern research, looks back to the earlier meet- 
ings of his Natural History Societies with the same tender 
rs feeling that one might look back to his first love. In these 
_ meetings were brought up for the entertainment of all and 
within the understanding of all, accounts of the habits of 
% various animals, curious manifestations of instinct, gleams of 
intelligence in low forms of life, odd ways of building nests, 
parental solicitude and unexpected traits never dreamed of. 
_ Beside all these attractive revelations was the announcement 
of the discovery of new species which sent as keen a thrill 
_ through the collector’s mind as that following the announce- 
: ment of a new star or a new continent. The aesthetic side 
was: also cultivated, and objects were exhibited solely for their 
