To George B. Emerson, Esq., 



Ghairman of the Commissioners 



for the Zoological Survey of the State : 

 Dear Sir, 



I ABi happy to inform you that I have brought to a close my re- 

 searches concerning those departments of the Zoology of the State, 

 which were assigned to me ; and I herewith forward to you such 

 portion of. my Report as I have found time to copy. The prepara- 

 tion and engraving of the figures with which I have been instructed 

 to illustrate the work, will, however, necessarily cause considerable 

 delay before it can be issued from the press. 



Appointed, as I suppose myself to have been, under that section 

 of the Constitution, which enjoins it upon the Legislature to encour- 

 age the arts and sciences, and to promote, among other things, 

 " a natural history of the country,'''' I have ventured to make my 

 Report mainly of a scientific character. It was the only way in 

 which my labors could prove of much practical value, inasmuch 

 as very few of the objects, belonging to the portion of the animal 

 kingdom to which my attention has been given, are of much gen- 

 eral interest, or of much importance in an economical point of view. 

 I could not but suppose, that an effort to contribute something towards 

 that branch of science, which we have hitherto received entirely at 

 the hands of other States and other lands, would be desired and 

 approved ; and that Massachusetts, which first set the example in 

 those investigations of territorial natural resources, which have since 

 been undertaken by almost every State in the Union, would not 

 desire to be behind any of the States in this respect. I have, there- 

 fore, undertaken to present something more than a mere array of 

 names in the form of a catalogue. 



As I could not extend my plan, fully, to all the objects assigned 

 me, I have selected the Shells, on which to bestow my chief atten- 

 tion. These I have endeavoured to describe and figure in such a 



