PREFACE. Vll 



" I hear with particular pleasure your 

 intention of resuming your interesting 

 travels, to which natural history has 

 already been so much indebted." And 

 again. " I am sorry you did not deposit 

 some part of your last harvest of birds in 

 the British Museum, that your name might 

 become familiar to naturalists, and your * 

 unrivalled skill in preserving birds, be 

 made known to the public.'' And again, 

 " You certainly have talents to set forth 

 a book, which will improve and extend 

 materially the bounds of natural science." 

 Sir Joseph never read the third adven- 

 ture. Whilst I was engaged in it, death 

 robbed England of one of her most 

 valuable subjects, and deprived the Royal 

 Society of its brightest ornament. 



