iV PREFACE. 



it is a question, whether science in the end would not 

 have been equally, and perhaps more advanced, had this 

 work been more adapted to general readers. Instruction 

 in these days of refinement must be made easy, palata- 

 ble, and enticing; the eye must be pleased, while the un- 

 derstanding is improved, and Wisdom in her simple dig- 

 nified garb will often be deserted for Ignorance, decked 

 out in the glittering trappings of Folly. 



The Nat iircdisf s Miscellany conducted by Dr. Shaw, 

 in its miscellaneous nature also resembled the present 

 work, and reached to the extent of twenty-four volumes. 

 What an invaluable fund of information these might have 

 contained had theircontents been original ! Unfortunately, 

 however, the exceptions are so few, that the whole may 

 be termed a loose compilation, the descriptions being 

 mostly given in as few words as possible, and the figures 

 not only copied from wretched representations found in 

 old authors, but often coloured from their descriptions 

 only ! It is indeed lamentable that the Author, whose 

 talents and abilities were unquestionable, should have ex- 

 erted them so little, and thus have descended to the rank 

 of a voluminous compiler, for little bettercanbe said of the 

 General Zoology, begun and continued under his name: 

 little original matter can there be found, excepting in the 

 latter volumes, yet even in these no notice whatever is taken 

 of theimmensenumber of new species discovered in Africa 

 by Le Vaillant, and long ago published in the OiseaiLV 

 d'Afriijiie: the engravings also are in like manner copied 

 from old prints, enlarged or diminished as occasion offers, 

 without even a reo;ard to the selection of the best. It 

 may be as well to observe in this place, that a great num- 

 ber of generic distinctions have been made in the two 

 last volumes ; which, as they have not been followed by 

 any of the great and acknowledged Zoologists on the 

 Continent, and appear to us in many instances trivial and 

 unnecessary, will not be adopted in this work. 



It will be unnecessary to point out with regard to the 

 scientific arrangement, that we have avowedly adopted 

 the principles of the modern classification ; which the 



