EDITOR'S PREFACE
These little volumes have been planned to fill what is thought to be a gap in modern Natural History literature between the more advanced manuals for adult readers and the one-syllable picture-books of the nursery. As a matter of fact, the keenest students of Nature at first hand are probably boys, who do not want to be insulted by the one or puzzled by the other.
While every attempt has been made to avoid all purely technical matters, and to explain any term not in everyday use, the authors have by no means affected the extreme simplicity of argument adopted in so many works of the kind. At the same time, the Editor will be only too glad to give any further explanations in his power, or to correspond with any readers on subjects of sufficient interest in which they may find difficulties.
