vi INTRODUCTION. 



continent, and in Greece and Asia Minor^ considerable collections 

 were made ; and on returning again to his home and commencing 

 a more detailed and systematic study of Zoology in general, 

 the same wants that had been so frequently impediments to 

 others, — the loose state of Zoological Nomenclature, and the im- 

 possibility of referring to any arranged /Sywonymy, — soon arrested 

 his attention, and with his accustomed energy he at once set 

 himself to compile and arrange materials to supply these defi- 

 ciencies. His plan for the reform of Zoological Nomenclature 

 was first publicly brought forward under the auspices of the 

 British Association in 1842 at its meeting in Manchester, and 

 after some opposition at the time, and a little difficulty in falling 

 at once under the rules proposed, it has become almost univer- 

 sally employed by zoologists as the guide and reference upon 

 this subject. The second part of the undertaking, by far the 

 most laborious and extensive, had been commenced some years 

 previously, and the plans for filling up and gradually per- 

 fecting Synomjmij were laid down. The synonymy of various 

 branches of Zoology had been contemplated * ; but the papers 

 relating to Ornithology, which had been made a more particular 

 study, were prepared and printed, and had been some time in 

 progress of being filled up. These generally accompanied him 

 on his visits among scientific friends, and no opportunity 

 was omitted to increase and verify them by comparison with 

 books and the examination of collections, as well as by an ex- 

 tensive correspondence with ornithologists both at home and 

 abroad ; and at the period of his decease the manuscript papers 

 amounted to no less than thirty-two volumes, having references 

 quoted from two hundred and forty-three separate works and 

 papers which had been completely examined and exhausted. The 

 work was gradually preparing for the press, and it was his in- 

 tention, so soon as the printing of the last volume of the Biblio- 

 graphy of Agassiz was finished, to have entered upon the active 

 prosecution of a long-promised and fondly cherished undertaking. 

 The melancholy event which has deprived this work of the su- 

 perintendence of the author himself need not be introduced now ; 

 it is well known to the scientific world ; suffice it to say, that 



* Among the MSS. in possession of Mrs. II. E. Strickland, there is a large mass 

 of materials for a synonymy of the Class Reptilia, both recent and fossil. 



