PREFACE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION, IX 



lias hitherto completed only the history of quadrupeds. I was, 

 therefore, left to )ny own reading alone, to make out the history 

 of bix'ds, tishes, and insects, of w^hich the arrangement was so dif- 

 ficult, and the necessary information so widely diffused, and so 

 obscurely related when found, that it proved by much the most 

 laborious part of the undertaking. Thus having made use of Mr 

 Buffon's lights in the first part of the work, I may with some 

 share of confidence recommend it to the public. But what shall 

 1 say to that part, where 1 have been entirely left without his as- 

 sistance ? As I would affect neither modesty nor confidence, it 

 will be sufiicient to say, that my reading upon this part of the 

 subject has been very extensive; and that 1 have taxed my scanty 

 circumstances in procuring books, which are on this subject, of all 

 others, the most expensive. In consequence of this industry, I 

 here offer a work to the public, of a kind which has never been 

 attempted in ours, or any other modern language, that I know of. 

 The ancients, indeed, and Pliny in particular, have anticipated 

 me in the present manner of treating natural history. Like those 

 historians who describe the events of a campaign, they have not 

 condescended to give the private particulars of every individual 

 that formed the army ; they were content with characterizing the 

 generals, and describing their operations, while they left it to 

 meaner hands' to carry the muster-roll. I have followed their 

 manner, rejecting the numerous fables which they adopted, and 

 adding the improvements of the moderns, which are so numerous, 

 that they actually make up the bulk of natural history. 



The delight which I found in reading Pliny, first inspired me 

 with the idea of a work of this nature. Having a taste rather 

 classical than scientific, and having but little employed myself in 

 turning over the dry labours of modern system-makers, my ear- 

 liest intention was to translate this agreeable writer, and by the 

 help of a commentary to make my work as amusing as I could. 

 Let us dignify natural history never so much with the grave ap- 

 pellation of a useful science, yet still we must confess, that it is 

 the occupaticn of the idle and the speculative, more than of the 

 busy and the ambitious part of mankind. My intention, there-- 

 fore, was to treat ■what 1 then conceived to be an idle subject in 

 an idle manner ; and not to hedge round plain and simple narra- 

 tives with hard words, accumulated distinctions, ostentatious 

 learning, and disquisitions that produced no conviction. Upon the 

 appearance, however, of Mr Buffer's work, I dropped my former 

 p!au, and adopted the present, being convinced, by his manner. 



