JUST PUBLISHED, 



In a handsome Folio Volume, Price Two Guineas, half morocco, gilt edges, 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF ZOOLOGY: 



The Engravings by J. W. Lowry and Thomas iandseer, 



FROM 



Original Drawings by Sowerby, Varley, Holmes, Bone, Pyne, Lowry, and Charles Landseer; 

 WITH DESCRIPTIVE LETTERPRESS, 



EMBRACING 



& lijBtatir %m nf tju immul litrghrai, 



ACCOBDING TO CTTVIEB, 



WITH CHAEACTERISTIC ANECDOTES AND NARRATIVES SELECTED FROM THE 

 WORKS OF RECENT NATURALISTS. 



rpHE Engravings of objects of Natural History contained in the Encyclopaedia 

 -*- Metropolitana have long been held in esteem for their beauty and accuracy. 

 They were accompanied by articles of great scientific value, contributed by those 

 eminent Naturalists, John Flint South, Esq. F.L.S., J. E. Gray, Esq. F.L.S., and 

 J. F. Stephens, Esq. F.L.S. F.Z.S. 



The plan, however, on which the first edition of the Encyclopaedia was arranged, 

 was such as to scatter the descriptive details of Natural History inconveniently through 

 twelve quarto volumes of Lexicography. Consequently, when the present Proprietors 

 endeavoured to meet the wishes of the Public by dividing the Encyclopaedia into 

 separate subjects, they were unable to associate the Descriptions of Animals with the 

 Engravings to which they related. 



In order in some measure to remedy this defect, and to meet the existing demand 

 for the Zoological Illustrations, the Proprietors instructed the Editor of this Volume to 

 prepare, from the Contributions above referred to, and from the recent works of other 

 eminent Naturalists, such an account of the Animals depicted in the Engravings as 

 would convey useful and agreeable knowledge of them individually, and afford a sys- 

 tematic view of the Genera, Orders, and Classes to which they belong, and of which 

 they constitute the characteristic Types. 



That commission he has endeavoured to fulfil in the pages now submitted for public 

 acceptance. He wishes it to be understood, however, that the work does not pretend 

 to be a System of Zoology, though the information given in it is placed in systematic 

 order ; neither does it pretend to describe the Animal Kingdom with any degree of 

 completeness, though it embraces, not merely the Animals depicted in the Engravings, 

 but many others that modern science has distinguished as forming the boundaries of 

 particular departments of animal life. 



What he trusts the work will be found to do, is to give a distinct view of the great 

 Outlines of Zoology to mark the whole extent and ramifications of the Science, as it 

 is now understood to discriminate the peculiarities of its Divisions and to exhibit 

 the characteristics of those remarkable creatures which, in their several departments, 

 most forcibly arrest the attention of those engaged in the study of the works of Nature. 



The work appears in the form of an Annual or Drawing-Room Table Book, equalling most 

 works of that class in beauty, and perhaps exceeding the whole of them in utility. The highest 

 Artistic talent, and the most eminent Naturalists, were employed, at a cost to the Proprietors of 

 above 2000 in its production ; and it is hoped that the present, compendious, beautiful, and cheap 

 edition, will meet with the approbation of all who take interest in Zoological Science. 

 LONDON, January, 1851. 



