X PREFACE. 



naturalists have thus been accurately registered up to the 

 time of publication. 



I am fully prepared to admit that the Catalogue would have 

 been rendered more useful if the works of each author had 

 been chronologically arranged. To a certain extent this has 

 been done ; but the mere alphabetical arrangement of such a 

 mass of authors' names was no slight undertaking, and to 

 have cut up and classified each book-title in the order of time 

 would have involved an amount of labour, both mechanical 

 and critical, which it was impossible to spare for such an ob- 

 ject. Those therefore who consult this work must be content 

 to find here a full list of the zoo-geo-logical writings of each 

 author, but must not expect any systematic arrangement of 

 those writings, either as to date or subject. 



It will be seen that in many instances I have been unable 

 to ascertain the Christian names of the authors recorded in 

 the alphabetical list. This is owing to the singular practice, 

 followed by many persons on the continent of Europe, of 

 signing their surnames only, omitting both the Christian 

 name and its initials. 1 have never been able to discover the 

 motive for a custom so productive of inconvenience and con- 

 fusion. 



The Council of the RAY SOCIETY propose, when this publi- 

 cation is completed, to print in a Supplement all the addi- 

 tional titles of books or memoirs on Zoology or Geology 

 which have been inadvertently omitted during its progress. 

 There still remain many periodical works, both British and 

 foreign, whose contents have never been looked at with a 

 view to this publication ; and of those which have been so 

 consulted, the later volumes have in some cases escaped no- 

 tice. To render the remaining volumes of the Bibliographia, 

 and its proposed Supplement, as complete as possible, the 

 Council earnestly request the cooperation of the Members of 



