Preface
tific terms that occur in the text. In so doing I know that I have but followed the wishes of the author, who never wearies of protesting against 'the barbarous terminology' favoured by his brother-naturalists. The matter became even more urgent in English than in any of the Latin languages; and I readily agreed when it was pointed out to me that, in a work essentially intended for general reading, there was no purpose in speaking of a Coleopteron when the word 'beetle' was to hand. In cases where an insect had inevitably to be mentioned by its Greek or Latin name, a note is given explaining, in the fewest words, the nature of the insect in question.
I have to thank my friend, M. Maurice Maeterlinck, for the stately preface which he has contributed to this volume, and Mr. Marmaduke Langdale and Miss Frances Rodwell for the generous assistance which they have given me in the details of my work. And I am also greatly indebted to Mr. W. S. Graff Baker for his invaluable help with the mathematical difficulties that confronted me in the translation of the Appendix.
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos.
Chelsea, 10 October, 1912.
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