ADVERTISEMENT. 



THE following work, though in some measure ele- 

 mentary, will be found to contain considerably more 

 than a mere Introduction to the study of Natural His- 

 tory. It was originally intended, besides observations 

 on the different Classes, detailing generally the struc- 

 ture and classification of the objects they embraced, to 

 give not only the generic characters of the whole Ani- 

 mal Kingdom, but examples of the principal and most 

 interesting species. In all the classes except two, the 

 INSECTA and ENTOZOA, this has been done, and in 

 most cases the indication has not been confined to a 

 single species. But in the class of Insects this was 

 found to be impossible within the limits prescribed, 

 the objects being so extremely numerous, that the re- 

 cently established generic distinctions would alone 

 have filled a volume. 



In the class MAMMALIA, the Mammalogie of M. 

 Desmarest has been followed, with the addition of the 

 species described since that work was published ; and 

 in this department, besides the characters of the recent 

 and fossil genera, room has been found for descriptions 



