vi PEEFACE. 



illustration of tlie Fauna of a region not likely to be 

 explored again for the same purpose in our time. The 

 limited means of a private traveller do not admit- of his 

 keeping, for a purely scientific end, a large collection. 

 A considerable number, from many of the consign- 

 ments which arrived in London from time to time, were 

 chosen for the British Museum, so that the largest set 

 next to my own is contained in our National Collection ; 

 but this probably comprises less than half the total 

 number of species obtained. My very complete private 

 collection of insects of nearly all the orders, which was 

 especially valuable as containing the various connecting 

 varieties, ticketed with their exact localities for the 

 purpose of illustrating the formation of races, does not 

 now exist in its entirety, a few large groups having 

 passed into private hands in different parts of Europe. 



With regard to the illustrations with which my book 

 is adorned, it requires to be mentioned that the Natural 

 History subjects have been drawn chiefly from speci- 

 mens obtained by me, and the others by able artists 

 partly from my own slight sketches. Messrs. Wolf and 

 Zwecker have furnished most of the larger ones, which 

 give an accurate idea of the objeots and scenes they 

 ref)resent: for the smaller ones, many of which, for 

 example the fishes, reptiles, and insects, are drawn with 

 extreme care, I am indebted to Mr. E. W. Robinson. 



Leicester, January, 1863. 



