PREFACE. XI 



pleasant, that it gave him the acquaintance of a 

 gentleman whose talents and acquirements would 

 have done honour to any country, but whose excel- 

 lencies as a man of science, as a gentleman, and as 

 a Christian, shine with peculiar lustre in the com- 

 parative seclusion of his native island. The Author 

 has long had the privilege of his correspondence ; — 

 he enjoys the still higher privilege of calling him 

 friend. It is with no small gratification that on the 

 title-page of this volume, he can again associate with 

 his own, the honoured name of Richard Hill, of 

 Spanish Town. 



In the progress of the work through the press the 

 memoirs communicated by this gentleman have 

 greatly accumulated. The Author (or rather as far 

 as these are concerned, the compiler) has felt loath to 

 withhold the valuable imformation collected by the 

 zeal and industry of his friend, and so kindly placed 

 at his disposal ; though, being contained in letters, a 

 considerable number of which are dated subsequently 

 to his own departure from the island, they still 

 further attenuate that " thread of continuity " al- 

 luded to above, which before was sufficiently slender. 

 The Author ventures to hope that the greater degree 

 of completeness thus attained in the survey of the 

 Jamaican Fauna, will atone for this lack of construc- 

 tive unity. 



Twenty-four new species of animals are described 



