8 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 



given on the Quadrumana ana the Bats is based on the recent and profound labours of 

 my friend and colleague M. Geoffroy de St. Hilaire. The researches of my brother, 

 M. Frederic Cuvier, on the teeth of the Carnaria and Rodentia, have proved highly 

 useful to me in forming the sub-genera of these two orders. Notwithstanding the 

 genera of the late M. Illiger are but the results of these same studies, and of those of 

 some foreign naturalists, I have adopted his names whenever his genera corresponded 

 with my sub-genera. M. de Lacepede has also discerned and indicated many excellent 

 divisions of this degree, which I have been equally compelled to adopt ; but the cha- 

 racters of all the degrees and all the indications of species have been taken from nature, 

 either in the Cabinet of Anatomy or in the galleries of the Museum. 



The same plan was pursued with respect to the Birds. I have examined with the 

 closest attention more than four thousand individuals in the Museum ; I arranged them 

 according to my views in the public gallery more than five years ago, and all that is 

 said of this class has been drawn from that source. Thus, any resemblance which my 

 sub-divisions may bear to some recent descriptions, is on my part purely accidental.* 



Naturalists, I hope, will approve of the numerous sub-genera which I have deemed 

 it necessary to make among the birds of prey, the Passerince, and the Shore-birds ; 

 they appear to me to have completely elucidated genera hitherto involved in much 

 confusion. I have marked, as exactly as I could, the accordance of these subdivisions 

 with the genera of MM. de Lacepede, Meyer, Wolf, Temminck, and Savigny, and 

 have referred to each of them all the species of which I could obtain a very positive 

 knowledge. This laborious work will prove of value to those who may hereafter 

 attempt a true history of hirds. The splendid works on Ornithology published within 

 a few years, and those chiefly of M. le Vaillant, which are fdled with so many 

 interesting observations, together with M. Vieillot's, have been of much assistance to 

 me in designating the species which they represent. 



The general division of this class remains as 1 published it in 1798, in my Tableau 

 Elanentaire.\ 



I have thought proper to preserve for the Reptiles, the general division of my friend 

 M. Brongniart ; but I have prosecuted very extensive anatomical investigations to arrive 

 at the ulterior subdivisions. M. Oppel, as I have already stated, has partly taken 

 advantage of these preparatory labours ; and whenever my genera finally agreed with 

 his, I have noticed the fact. The work of Daudin, indifferent as it is, has been useful 

 to me for indications of details ; but the particular divisions which I have given in the 

 genera of Monitors and Geckos, are the product of my own observations on a great 

 number of Reptiles recently brought to the Museum by MM. Peron and Geoffroy. 



My labours on the Fishes will probably be found to exceed those which I have 

 bestowed on the other vertebrated animals. Our Museum having received a vast 

 number of Fishes since the celebrated work of M. de Lacepede was published, I have been 

 enabled to add many subdivisions to those of that learned naturalist, also to combine 

 several species differently, and to multiply anatomical observations. I have also had 



* This observation not having been sufficiently understood abroad, 

 I am obliged to repeat it here, and openly to declare a fact witnessed 

 by thousands in Paris ; it is this, that all the birds in the gallery of 

 the Museum were named and arranged according to my system, in 

 1811. Those even of my subdivisions to which 1 had not yet given 

 names, were marked by particular signs. This is my date, lnde- 

 pendeutly of tbis, my first volume was printed in the beginning of 



1816. Four volumes are not printed so quickly a« a pamphlet of a few 

 pages. I say no more. (Note to Edit. 18-9). 



t I only mention this because an estimable naturalist, M. Vieillot, 

 has, in a recent work, attributed to himself the union of the Pica and 

 Pusscres. I had printed it in 1/98, together with my other arrange- 

 ments, so as to render them public in the Museum since 1811 and 1813 



