PREFACE. 



THE First Edition of tliis Guide was issued, without 

 illustrations, on the 19th April, 1881 ; the second in 1882,. 

 illustrated with thirty-one wood engravings ; a third, slightly 

 altered, appeared in 1884. A fourth Edition, almost wholly 

 re-written, with many fresh illustrations, appeared in 1886,. 

 and a fifth, with only a few alterations, in 1888. The sixth 

 Edition appeared in April, 1890, and 3,000 copies were sold up 

 to October, 1895. Of these six editions, altogether 18,000 

 copies have been issued. 



The publication of Mr. R. Lydekker's Museum Catalogues- 

 of the " Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia," Parts I-V. (1888-90), 

 and Mr. Arthur Smith Woodward's Catalogue of the Fossil 

 Fishes, Parts I-III. (1889-95), and the very numerous and 

 important additions made to the exhibited series of specimens 

 have necessitated the re-arrangement of a great part of these- 

 Collections, and also changed the plan of the Guide. 



The writer is largely indebted to the authors of Nicholson's 

 and Lydekker's "Paleontology" (Vol. II., " Yertebrata," by 

 R. Lydekker), from which numerous notes and extracts have 

 been made in the compilation of this Guide. The part relat- 

 ing to the Fossil Fishes has been entirely re-written by Mr. 

 Arthur Smith Woodward. Mr. C. W. Andrews has also- 

 obligingly assisted in the preparation of this work. 



HENRY WOODWARD. 



Department of Geology, 

 8th April, 1896. 



