OF SELBORNE. 113 



near some great river, my natural propensity would 

 soon have urged me to have made myself acquainted 

 with their productions : but as I have lived mostly in 

 inland parts, and in an upland district, my knowledge 

 of fishes extends little farther than to those common 

 sorts which our brooks and lakes produce. 



I am, &c. 



the subsequent editions improvements were introduced, and especially in 

 that of 1812; the editor of which, Mr. Hanmer it is believed, revised it 

 with so much care as to render it almost a new work. Until very recently 

 the third volume of the British Zoology has been the most generally 

 available authority on our native fishes ; for the work of Donovan, con- 

 sisting of highly finished coloured figures, is by far too expensive for 

 general use. 



But the system adopted by Pennant (and by Donovan also) was that of 

 Linnaeus, the groups of which are too comprehensive to be suitable to the 

 prevailing taste among zoologists for minute analysis of animal forms ; 

 and his work, although still valuable as regards species, had become alto- 

 gether unsatisfactory with respect to genera and to arrangement. Many 

 and important additions had also been made, by observers on various parts 

 of the coast, to this department of our Fauna ; and more defined views had 

 been obtained as to those fishes which inhabit the fresh waters of Britain. 

 It had consequently become as desirable in 1835 as it was in 1768, that 

 the student should be better informed with regard to ichthyology ; and 

 my friend Mr. Yarrell, of whose extensive knowledge in this as in many 

 other branches of zoology it is unnecessary to speak, has taken up the 

 subject with that steady clearness which belongs to him, and will, before 

 this sheet appears, have completed a History of British Fishes. Adopt- 

 ing the classification of Cuvier he has characterised in that work upwards 

 of two hundred species, that have been taken on our coasts or in our 

 rivers and lakes ; has described them fully ; and has entered into some 

 account of their natural history, so far as so difficult a subject is at 

 present understood. His work is illustrated by numerous beautifully 

 executed wood cuts ; including representations (with only three or four 

 exceptions) of every fish that is yet known to belong to the British 

 Fauna. 



The deserved success of Mr. Yarrell's Fishes, it may be remarked, has 

 caused it to be regarded, in some measure, as the commencement of a 

 series of works on the British Fauna, to be executed in the same style 

 with it. Mr. Bell has undertaken the second of these works, the British 

 Quadrupeds, liberally illustrated, like the Fishes, with wood cuts, and 

 promising to be a fit companion to that useful as well as handsome book, 

 E. T. B. 



