160 jSlatural History. [Chap. Ill 



neva; Keedliaim, of Great Britain; Adanson, of 

 France; Spallanzani, of Italy; and, above all, by 

 Muller, of Denmark: the last of whom has inves- 

 tigated and exhibited this department of zoology in 

 a manner more extensive, complete, and satisfac- 

 tory, than any of his predecessors. 



Most of the naturalists above mentioned not only' 

 VtTOte v^ith great ability on the several subjects 

 connected with their names, but also made large 

 additions to the facts and specimens made known 

 by preceding inquirers. Few of them failed to con- 

 nect with the ingenuity of system a large mass of 

 new and useful information. A considerable num- 

 ber of new Quadrupeds have been brought to light 

 during the period of which we are speaking, and 

 added to the old lists. The species of Birds ar- 

 ranged and described by Linnasus amounted to 

 near a thousand : since that time the nmnber has 

 been more than doubled, by the inquiries of the 

 great ornithologists already mentioned; and also 

 by the discoveries of sir Joseph Banks, Mauduit, 

 Desfontaines, Dombey, Vaillant, and many others*. 

 The class Amphibia^ though not so much extended, 

 by the discovery of new genera and species, as 

 some of the other classes, has yet received consi- 

 derable augmentation in this way. Of Fishes, Lin- 

 naeus described shout four hundred species-, but, 

 since he wrote, the catalogue has been so mucii en- 

 larged by circumnavigators and travellers, that they 

 now amount to considerably more than o?ie thou- 



* According tq the latest accounts given by M. la Cepede, 

 who has introduced, as was before observed, a new arrange- 

 ment of birds, there are now known tivo thousand Jive hundred 

 find thirty-six species. 



