PROSPECTUS. 
BIOLOGIA CENTRALI-AMERICANA., 
Kdited by F. D. GODMAN and OSBERT SALVIN. 
UNDER this title it is proposed to publish a series of Quarto Volumes upon the Fauna and Flora 
of Mexico and Central America—i. e. the whole of Mexico from the valleys of the Rio Grande and 
Gila on the north, the five Central-American States of Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, 
Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, British Honduras, and the Colombian State of Panama as far south as 
the Isthmus of Darien. 
During the past twenty-two years the Editors have been collecting materials for such a Work 
as they now propose. They have themselves visited parts of the country, and spent several years 
there; and during the whole of the above period they have received collections from correspondents, 
and from naturalists specially employed in visiting many of the previously unexplored districts. 
The materials thus obtained have been partly retained by the Editors in their own Collection, and 
partly so distributed as to be most readily avaiable for the present work. In addition to these 
materials, the Editors propose that all specimens obtained by other travellers should be examined, 
wherever they may be accessible, so as to make the work as complete a record as possible of what 
is known of the Animal and Vegetable life of the country under investigation. 
The work will be issued in Zoological and Botanical Parts. Those relating to Zoology will 
contain portions of several subjects. When ths work is closed each subject will be complete in 
itself; and the whole will form a series of volumes of various thicknesses, according to the extent 
of each subject. The Botanical parts will contam no other subject. 
Each Zoological Part will contain twelve sheets (or 96 pages) of letterpress, and an average of 
six plates, most of which will be lithographs coloured by hand. 
Each Botanical Part will also contain twelve sheets of letterpress and an average of six plates, 
a few of which will be coloured. 
As it is proposed to include all the materials that may come to hand during the progress of 
the work, it is not possible to give an exact estimate of its extent; but it is believed that it 
will not much exceed 60 Parts, equivalent to abut 12 Volumes of 500 pages each, of Zoology, and 
20 Parts of Botany. 
The work will be published by Subscriptioa; and Subscribers will be at liberty to take the 
whole work or the Zoology or Botany separatey. The different subjects of Zoology will not be 
sold separately ; and Subscribers, on commencng their Subscription, must give an undertaking 
to continue it till the work is finished. 
The Price of each Zoological Part will b 21s., and of each Botanical Part, 12s. 6d. 
The Editors feel that it will be hardly possible to dsue Parts at stated intervals ; but they will endeavour 
to complete a Part of each subject every two maths, or siz Zoological and sia Botanical Parts in the 
course of a year. 
