Vlii PREFACE. 



account of the Fossil Mammalia, by Professor Owen ; of the Living 

 Mammalia, by Mr. Waterhouse ; of the Birds, by Mr. Gould; of 

 the Fish, by the Eev. L. Jenyns ; and of the Eeptiles, by Mr. Bell. 

 I have appended to the descriptions of each species an account of 

 its habits and range. These works, -which I owe to the high talents 

 and disinterested zeal of the above distinguished authors, could 

 not have been undertaken, had it not been for the liberality of the 

 Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, who, through the 

 representation of the Eight Honourable the Chancellor of the Ex- 

 chequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one thousand pounds 

 towards defraying part of the expenses of publication. 



I have myself published separate volumes on the ' Structure and 

 Distribution of Coral Eeefs;' on the 'Volcanic Islands visited 

 during the Voyage of the Beagle ; ' and on the ' Geology of South 

 America.' The sixth volume of the 'Geological Transactions' 

 contains two papers of mine on the Erratic Boulders and Volcanic 

 Phenomena of South America. Messrs. "Waterhouse, Walker, 

 Newman, and White, have published several able papers on the 

 Insects which were collected, and I trust that many others will 

 hereafter follow. The plants from the southern parts of America 

 will be given by Dr. J. Hooker, in his great work on the Botany 

 of the Southern Hemisphere. The Flora of the Galapagos Archi- 

 pelago is the subject of a separate memoir by him, in the ' Linneau 

 Transactions.' The Eeverend Professor Henslow has published a 

 list of the plants collected by me at the Keeling Islands; and the 

 Eeverend J. M. Berkeley has described my cryptogamic plants. 



I shall have the pleasure of acknowledging the great assistance 

 which I have received from several other naturalists, in the course 

 of this and my other works ; but I must be here allowed to return 

 my most sincere thanks to the Eeverend Professor Henslow, who, 

 when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, was one chief means 

 of giving me a taste for Natural History, who, during my absence, 

 took charge of the collections I sent home, and by his correspond- 

 ence directed my endeavours, and who, since my return, has 

 constantly rendered me every assistance which the kindest friend 

 could offer. 



Down, Bromley, Kent, 

 Jim?, 1845. 



