- 



u 



PREFACE. 



THE present Work contains descriptions of all the 

 Vertebrate Animals, including the domesticated, naturalized, 

 and extirpated species, which have been hitherto observed 

 in the British Islands. The object of its author is to 

 present Naturalists with a Manual in this department of 

 our Fauna, adapted to the existing state of our knowledge, 

 and such as shall be calculated to meet the wants of the 

 Science in that advanced stage to which it has attained 

 since the publication of former works of this nature. In 

 furtherance of this end two points appeared necessary to 

 be attended to. One was to ascertain, as far as practicable, 

 the additions which had been made of late years to our 

 lists of British Animals, to inquire into the respective 

 claims of those which had been admitted into these lists 

 previously, and carefully to distinguish between such 

 species as have unquestionably occurred within the limits 

 of our own Islands, or in the adjoining seas, and others 

 of which reasonable doubts might be entertained in re- 

 ference to this matter. The other important point, as it 

 appeared to the author, was to take care that the descrip- 

 tions should as far as possible be obtained from the animals 

 themselves, and nothing inserted upon the credit of other 

 writers which was capable of being verified by personal 

 examination. The day is for ever gone by in which mere 

 compilations will be thought to be of any service to the 



