vi PREFACE. 



regarding them as extensive benefactors of the 

 science. But the writings of these naturalists, 

 and others which have been noticed in the body 

 of the work, are not only rare, but expensive ; 

 so that the task of investigating the facts which 

 have been established, or the theories which have 

 been proposed, can scarcely, in ordinary circum- 

 stances, be entered upon. The want, indeed, of 

 such an introduction to the study of the Animal 

 Kingdom, as should serve as an index to the doc- 

 trines on which the classification is founded, has 

 frequently been the subject of regret, and may pro- 

 bably be considered as the origin of that indifference 

 to the science which is but too apparent in this coun- 

 try. Botany and Mineralogy have been illustrated 

 by a variety of introductory works, full of enlarged 

 and philosophical views, and professorships have 

 been instituted to accelerate the progress of these 

 sciences : but Zoology has experienced no such fos- 

 tering care. It has been abandoned to its fate, and 

 suffered to languish under the pernicious influence 

 of peculiar external circumstances. 



Among those circumstances which have directly 

 retarded the progress of Zoology in Britain, there 

 is one which has been conspicuously hurtful, the 



