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PREFACE. 



In complying with the customary formality of a 

 Preface to this which forms, in point of time, the 

 Second Volume of his illustrations of the living: 

 Animals in the collection of the Zoological Society, 

 the Editor has little to add to the exposition already 

 given of the views with which this publication was 

 originally undertaken. Its primary object was the 

 diffusion of correct zoological information, in plain 

 and intelligible language, in a form calculated to 

 render it acceptable, and at a price sufficiently 

 moderate to make it accessible, to the mass of the 

 reading public. On these principles the first vo- 

 lume was prepared ; and they have been applied 

 with equal steadiness to that which is now given 

 to the world. 



In it the reader will find descriptions and repre- 

 sentations of upwards of seventy species of Birds, 

 forming it is true but a small numerical proportion 

 of those which exist in the Society's Menagerie, 

 but comprehending nevertheless nearly all the 

 most striking and interesting forms. To these 

 more prominent objects the Editor has determined 

 to limit the ornithological division of his work. 

 Several considerations have induced him to abstain 



