INTRODUCTION. 



and Sweden ; and the authors of the latter countries 

 would as readily have adopted the names of Mon- 

 tagu as those of Draparnaud, if they had been ac- 

 quainted with the work of the former, which, it should 

 be recollected, was published at a period when we 

 were excluded from the Continent by an unhappy war. 

 It ought to be, and, judging from the attention 

 which our botanists and zoologists pay to continental 

 works, I believe it is, the desire of the naturalists of 

 this country to give to each author his just due, let 

 him belong to what country he may; and, eventually, 

 this high position must be taken even by those (if 

 any such there be) who are now restricted by narrow- 

 national prejudices from consulting the works of their 

 contemporaries in other countries. It is these con- 

 siderations which have induced me to take the course 

 I have adopted. I believe, moreover, that if I had 

 followed that recommended by Mr. Alder and Mr. 

 Jeffreys, I should have experienced continual diffi- 

 culties in determining whether the name of a species 

 used by German or French authors was the most 

 generally adopted ; and this difficulty would have 

 gone on daily increasing, inasmuch as the Germans 

 are paying more and more attention to natural sci- 

 ence, and their language is becoming more generally 



studied in this countrv. 



*> 



A short description of the animals, and a few notes 

 on their habits, have been added; and this new feature 

 in the work might have been greatly extended, had 

 it not been feared to add too much to its bulk. 



Great care has been taken in correcting such false 

 impressions as may have been produced by over- 

 sights in the works of preceding English writers on. 

 b 2 



