XXX PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
I have used every effort to compare and approximate these redundant 
names, and, forgetting even my own petty interest as an author, I have 
frequently specified names which had every appearance of being con- 
trived merely for the purpose of evading the acknowledgment that they 
were borrowed from my decisions. But for the complete execution of 
such a work, the very pinnacle of the Animal Kingdom, but which every 
day becomes more necessary,—for the discussion of evidence, and for 
settling the permanent nomenclature that ought to be adopted upon ade- 
quate descriptions and figures—for all this, a period of time would be 
required which I have not at my disposal, and which is imperiously de- 
manded by other works. It is in the ‘* History of Fishes,” which, as- 
sisted by M. Valenciennes, I have commenced publishing, that I intend 
to give an idea of what I think might be effected with respect to all parts 
of the science. Here I pretend to furnish only a mere abridgment, in- 
deed a simple sketch—happy will I be if I only succeed in rendering it 
correct in all its parts. 
Various descriptions of a similar kind have been published of some of 
the classes, and I have carefully studied them all, in order to perfect my 
own. The “ Mammalogie” of M. Desmarest, that of M. Lesson, the 
“Treatise on the Teeth of Quadrupeds” of M. Frederick Cuvier, the 
English translation of my first edition by Mr. Griffith, enriched by nu- 
merous additions chiefly by Hamilton Smith, the new edition of the 
* Manual of Ornithology” of M. Temminck, the ‘‘ Ornithological Frag- 
ments” of M. Wagler, the “ Description of Reptiles,” by the late Mer- 
rem, and the dissertation on the same subject by M. Fitsinger, were 
principally useful to me for the Vertebrated animals. The ‘* History of 
the Invertebrated Animals” of M. de Lamarck, and the ‘* Malacologie” 
of M. de Blainville, were also of great use to me for the Mollusca. To 
these I have added the new views and facts contained in the numerous 
and learned writings of Messrs. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, father and son, 
Savigny, Temminck, Lichtenstein, Kuhl, Wilson, Horsfield, Vigors, 
Swainson, Gray, Ord, Say, Harlan, Charles Bonaparte, Lamouroux, 
Mitchell, Lesueur, and many other able and studious men, whose names 
will be carefully mentioned wherever I speak of the subjects they have 
described. 
The fine collection of engravings which have appeared within the last 
twelve years have allowed me to indicate a greater number of species, 
nor have I failed to make ample use of the opportunity. I must parti- 
cularly acknowledge what I owe on this score to the ‘‘ Histoire of Mam- 
miféres” of MM. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Frederick Cuvier, the 
“Coloured Plates” of Messrs. Temminck and Laugier, the “ Gallery of 
Birds” of M. Vieillot, the new edition of the “* German Birds” of M. 
