VI PREFACE, 



from figuring the remaining species, and thus 

 increasing the bulk, and at the same time the 

 expense of the present publication. Thus with 

 respect to British Birds, he has given only a few 

 of the rarer species, because most of the others 

 are familiar to the generality of readers, and have 

 been already well figured and described in books 

 of easy access and good zoological authority. Ma- 

 ny too of the exotic species are scarcely capable 

 of being distinguished from their fellows without 

 the aid of colours ; while in others the splendour 

 and variety of their hues form their most striking 

 characteristic. This is particularly the case with 

 the Pigeon and Parrot families ; and for this reason, 

 although the collection afforded him an ample 

 choice of both, and especially of the latter, (in 

 which it is rich beyond example, ) he has restricted 

 himself to the illustration of a few of their more 

 remarkable forms. 



In conclusion the Editor has only to observe, 

 that in the ornithological department he has 

 adopted the arrangement of Mr. Vigors, as deve- 

 loped by that gentleman in the fourteenth volume 

 of the Linnean Transactions, and subsequently in 

 the second volume of the Zoological Journal : an 

 arrangement which he regards as having made 

 the greatest advance towards the exposition of the 

 natural system of any that has yet appeared. 



