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ABORTIVE COLONIAL PUBLICATIONS. 231 
part of his friend’s life had been allotted to the self- 
imposed task of prosecuting, with the fullest ardour, the 
study of Natural History. He was inured, consequently, 
by long experience, to a pra€tical and thorough know- 
ledge of the numerous and varied difficulties which op- 
pose the naturalist in the course of his excursions into 
the forest—his steering up and down creeks, or travers- 
ing, under the dire&t and scorching rays of a tropical sun, 
the open and unsheltered savannahs. To his indefatigable 
labours Natural History stands much and justly indebted, 
and in a more especial manner the Ornithologist, upon 
whose department he has bestowed the most unremitted 
labour, and unwearied assiduity ; and has thus brought 
the art of preserving and mounting (with extreme nicety 
and elegance) of its various interesting objeéts to the 
greatest degree of perfe€tion. When thus unsolicited, 
and without the least privilege, the present writer makes 
allusion to a gentleman of acknowledged worth and inde- 
pendent fortune, he does so with the utmost possible re- 
gard towards him ; and in naming CHARLES WATERTON, 
Esq., of Walton Hall, Yorkshire, as the friend to 
whom he owes so much, as his instru€tor and monitor in 
treading the intricate path of Natural History, he does 
no more than his merits, under every circumstance in 
which they can be viewed, justly entitle him to. With- 
out his aid the Author had been as well out of “ the 
Bush” as in it; he knew nothing: he profited by his 
advice ; he gained wisdom and understanding in Natural 
History by his instru€tions. 
In the Work now offered to the consideration of an 
indulgent public, the Author purposes to lay before them 
a succin& account of such animals as came under his 
