Excerpt from Rambles of an Australian Naturalist It is always difficult to write a preface; it is an art to write a good one. There are peculiar difficulties in scoring the overture to the present work, because it is only partially mine. I am at liberty to say that it was because Mr Ward did not feel sufficiently confident to write the book by himself that he sought my aid. I hope I have done justice to the mass of splendid material he has entrusted to me. I can truly say I have handled it with a loving care that has not been exceeded in the writing of any of my own books. Before I undertook the task of collating Mr Ward's notes, I stipulated that I should be permitted to treat the book as my own. I regard it as a foster-child, but as dear to me as any of my own literary offspring. Mr Ward is a Queensland stock-farmer, who, like myself, has amused himself in the intervals of a roughly laborious life with studying Nature in the wild, and prying into the wonders of her works. I am forbidden, by the position I have accepted, to say plainly what I think, or what I feel, of his ability as a field naturalist; but I must say that his splendid powers of observation demanded that I should exert myself to the utmost to deal worthily with the material placed at my disposal. My task has been to reduce the notes to readable form, collect the scattered information on specific subjects, and identify and supply the scientific names of species, etc. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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