14 



Natural History, in this country, was little understood, 

 and when an examination of the State, to which it 

 relates, had hardly been commenced. In that work, 

 (although the attempt to assign to our animals and veg- 

 tables their scientific names, was a failure,) he collected 

 together from the hunters and early settlers, much that 

 is valuable in relation to the magnitude, habits, &c., of 

 our larger animals, and saved from oblivion many facts 

 which are no where else preserved. 



After the publication of Dr. Williams' history, the 

 last edition of which was issued more than 40 years 

 ago, nothing further was published respecting the 

 Natural History of the State, excepting a catalogue of 

 Vermont minerals by Prof. Frederick Hall, and a 

 catalogue of the plants of Middlebury and vicinity, by 

 Dr. Edwin James, previous, to the publication of my 

 Natural and Civil History of the State, in 1842. Hav- 

 ing, myself, devoted considerable attention to the 

 vertebrala of the State, and being kindly aided in the 

 department of botany by the late William Oakes, Esq., 

 of Ipswich, Mass., and in conchology by Prof. C. B. 

 Adams, then of Middlebury College, with occasional 

 assistance in other branches of zoology, kindly ren- 

 dered by members of this Society, I was enabled to 

 embrace in that work nearly all that was then known 

 of the Natural History of the State. Since the issue of 

 that work, much more has been done, and many facts 

 accumulated, which have not been made public, and 

 still the investigation of some branches of the Natural 

 History of Vermont is not yet commenced. 



Quadrupeds and birds possess such facilities for loco- 

 motion, that they could not be expected in Vermont 

 to differ much from those of the neighboring States. 



