Page:The crayfish - an introduction to the study of zoology (IA crayfishintroduc00huxl 2).pdf/11

 PREFACE. -♦--

In writing this book about Crayfishes it has not

been my intention to compose a zoological mono¬ graph on that group of animals.

Such a work, to

be worthy of the name, would require the devotion of years of patient study to a mass of materials collected from many parts of the world.

Nor has

it been my ambition to write a treatise upon our English crayfish, which should in any way pro¬ voke comparison with the memorable labours of Lyonet, Bojanus, or Strauss Durckheim, upon the willow caterpillar, the tortoise, and the cockchafer. What I have had in view is a much humbler, though perhaps, in the present state of science, not less use¬ ful object.

I have desired, in fact, to show how

the careful study of one of the commonest and most insignificant of animals, leads us, step by step, from every-day knowledge to the widest generalizations