PREFACE. 
THE intent of the following pages, is to supply the col- 
lector of British Shells, at a moderate cost, and in a 
portable form, with a complete descriptive catalogue of 
all the marine species decidedly indigenous to this 
country. 
The author has endeavoured to compile a work which 
might suffice for the arrangement of any cabinet of British 
Shells. For the Bivalves, the useful quarto of Turton 
has been abridged, the abridgemeat (if it may be so 
called) consisting merely in a selection and contraction 
of the synonyms, the whole substance of the descriptions 
being retained and frequently enlarged. As no work si- 
milarly devoted to the elucidation of the Univalves, and 
based on the more scientific and natural arrangement of 
the modern systematists, had appeared ; that section has 
demanded a stricter comparison of specimens, with the 
drawings .and descriptions of the older writers. of the 
Limeean School. Much-care has been bestowed upon a 
point neglected hitherto. by‘our authors, the comparison 
of our native species with- these des. ribed by the older 
naturalists, and those contained m the Faunez of Europe 
and America. 
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