BRITISH ZOOLOGISTS 



(CONTINUED). 



DURING the last part of the eighteenth century, and 

 during the few years of the nineteenth century which 

 preceded the appearance of the l Regne Animal,' natural 

 history was diligently prosecuted in Britain by numerous 

 observers, most of whom can be merely noticed here. 

 For intelligible reasons, the groups of animals most 

 largely studied at this period were birds, fishes, and 

 insects, and to a less extent shellfish (Mollusca). One 

 of the most purely British naturalists of this period was 

 George Montagu, a colonel in the army, and a wealthy 

 man, who left behind him two well-known works on 

 our native animals. One of these is his ' Ornithological 

 Dictionary, or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds,', 

 in two octavo volumes, published in 1802. A supple- 

 ment to this work was published in 1813. The other 

 work was the ' Testacea Britannica, an Account of all the 

 Shells hitherto discovered in Britain,' in two volumes 

 quarto, published in 1803, with a supplement in 1808. 



The most extensive writer on ornithology of this period 

 was, however, Dr John Latham, a most voluminous writer, 

 and personally a most estimable man. His three great 



