PREFACE. 



The study of British Zoology is peculiarly attractive to the 

 intelligent observer of nature in this country, by the facility 

 with which many species, in the different groups of animals, can 

 be procured for accurate examination. Their forms, structure, 

 and successive dev elopement, can be traced in detail, together 

 with the functions which they exercise, and the various circum- 

 stances by which they are controlled. In this manner just con- 

 ceptions of the laws of organization, and the limits to the distri- 

 bution of the species, may be acquired, and the, mind qualified 

 for speculating on the more extended relations of the animal 

 kingdom. A valuable collection of facts wiU likewise be secured, 

 by which the most fascinating generalisations may be tested — 

 those productions which, like a map, should always be received 

 with suspicion, if inaccurate within the sphere of individual ob- 

 servation. 



These views have long exercised an influence in this country, 

 and given rise to those various attempts to enumerate and de- 

 scribe British animals, which, for more than a century, have 

 been presented in succession to the public. During this ex- 

 tended interval, the science of zoology has experienced several 

 remarkable changes, each producing a corresponding effect on 

 the British Fauna. If anatomy and physiology be regarded as 

 the basis of zoological science, the history of species will include 

 a description of their structure and functions, along with their 

 external characters. If anatomy and physiology be discarded as 

 foreign to the subject, and the professed naturalist acknowledge, 

 without a blush, his ignorance or his contempt of both, then 

 the history of species will be chiefly occupied with the details 

 of external appearance. Such different conditions have pre- 



