ADVERTISEMENT. 



IN presenting this version of the " Animal Kingdom " of the celebrated 

 Cuvier to the British public, the Translator feels assured that he has 

 only acted in compliance with the wishes of the most intelligent portion 

 of the community, inasmuch as the great deficiency in our language of a 

 complete work in this grand department of Natural History is thus 

 supplied in a manner that it is impossible to excel. It is essential for 

 the reader to understand that the attempts hitherto made by English 

 authors to enrich British scientific literature with the labours of Cuvier, 

 have been confined to the translation of the first edition of the " Regne 

 Animale," which made its appearance so far back as the year 1816. 

 With respect to that translation, it is not necessary that we should dwell 

 upon it farther than to observe, that it is the version of a work which may 

 now be deemed to be completely superseded. The great French author 

 himself, indeed, has acknowledged the imperfections of his first edition, 

 as compared with the last, which is now enriched with the results of 

 labours, whereby, during the interval of twelve years, an immense pro- 

 gress is declared by Cuvier to have been effected in this science. It is 

 scarcely necessary to add, that no part of those labours, and no por- 

 tion of that improvement, failed to be examined by this indefatigable 

 naturalist. His connection with the government of France, his reputa- 

 tion throughout Europe, and his consequent unbounded facilities of com- 

 munication with fellow-labourers in all quarters of the globe, gave to 

 Cuvier opportunities of procuring information of new facts, or corrections 

 of former errors, such as could not be accessible to almost any other 

 individual. 



From considering these facts, the reader will not fail to conclude that a 

 difference, to no small amount, must necessarily exist between the former 

 and the latter edition of the "Animal Kingdom;" nor will he, upon due 

 examination, be prepared to deny that the latter is essentially a new and 

 distinct work, from the number of alterations and improvements which 

 have been incorporated with it. Cuvier records, with the most grateful 

 expressions, his sense of the value of the information derived by him 

 from the vast number of faithfully executed figures in Natural History 

 which were supplied by recent travellers. The difficulties presented in 

 the arrangement of the synonymes in the nomenclature of animals were 

 also found by our great author very seriously diminished when he came 

 to prepare the second edition of his " Regne Animale." Naturalists of 



