Vlll PREFACE. 



also thank my beloved wife, and Hon. Joseph White, 

 Professor A. Crosby, Mr. J. Gove, L. R. S. Gove, A. B., 

 T. D. Adams, A. M., and Mr. F. G. Sanborn, for special 

 favors in connection with the work. I am under obli- 

 gations to Captain Alpheus Hyatt, and the Library of 

 Harvard College, the Library of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History, the State Library, the City Library of 

 Boston, and to Messrs. Piper & Co. of Boston, for the 

 use of rare books. Nor would I omit to express my 

 thanks to the gentlemen of the University Press, whose 

 skill in proof-reading, electrotyping, and printing has 

 done so much to make the book accurate and attrac- 

 tive. And I would here thank my Publishers for their 

 generosity in willingly making the large outlay neces- 

 sary to issue the work in its present form. 



I take this opportunity to say that I shall soon ask 

 my Publishers to issue another volume on Zoology. It 

 will contain the same illustrations as the present one, 

 and will be especially adapted to the wants of Gram- 

 mar Schools, and to the younger classes of readers. 



Hoping that the present work may meet, in some 

 degree, a want which has long been felt, and aid the 

 youth and others of our whole country in the delightful 

 study of Natural History, and thereby advance the cause 

 of Learning, I submit it to the kind consideration of 

 the friends of Popular Education. 



S. T. 



CAMBRIDGE, MASS., August i, 1865. 



