FREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XXX1 
Nauman, the “ Birds of the United States” of Messrs. Wilson, Ord, 
and Charles Bonaparte*, the great works of M. Spix and of the Prince 
Maximilian de Wied on the animals of Brazil, and to those of M. Ferus- 
sac on the Molusca. The plates and zoological descriptions of the tra- 
vels of Messrs. Freycinet and Duperrey, given in the first by Messrs. 
Quoy and Gaymard, and in the second by Messrs. Lesson and Garnot, 
present, also, many new objects. ‘The same should be said of the ani- 
mals of Java, by M. Horsfield. Though, on a smaller scale, new figures 
of rare species are to be found in the ‘‘ Mémoires du Muséum,” in the 
** Annales des Sciences Naturelles,” in the different dictionaries of the 
natural sciences, in the ‘‘ Zoological Illustrations” of M. Swainson, and 
in the Zoological Journal published by able naturalists in London. The 
Journals of the Lyceum of New York, and of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences of Philadelphia, are not less invaluable; but in proportion as 
the taste for natural history becomes extended, and the more numerous 
the countries in which it is cultivated, the number of its acquisitions in- 
crease in geometrical progression, and it becomes more and more difficult 
to collect all the writings of naturalists, and to complete the table of their 
results; I rely, therefore, on the indulgence of those whose observations 
may have escaped me, or whose works I may not have studied with as 
much care as would enable me to avail myself, of all which they were 
capable of affording me. 
My celebrated friend and colleague, M. Latreille, as in the first edi- 
tion, having consented to take upon himself the important and difficult 
subject of the Crustacea, Arachnides, and Insects, will himself point out 
the path he has pursued; so that on these points I need say nothing 
more at present. 
Jardin du Roi, October, 1828. 
* The work of M. Audubon upon the Birds of North America, which surpasses 
all others in magnificence, was unknown to me till after the whole of that part which 
treats of birds was printed. 
