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INTRODUCTION

theme of the following chapters is that portion of the animal kingdom now found, at one time or another of the year, in or around the British Islands; and, like the conjurer who at the commencement of his tricks forswears mystery, I want, in a very few words, to explain one or two terms that must unavoidably be used in this book with meanings somewhat different from those in everyday employment.

The animal kingdom, then, is our subject, and not plants or stones. Both of these come within the field of natural history in its widest sense; but botany deals with the first, and geology and mineralogy with the