

i 



PREFACE. 



In preparing the following work, the chief aim of the Author has been not the invention 

 of new species, but the establishment of old ones, in which he flatters himself he has succeeded. 

 Very few synonyms of the older authors on Ornithology not having been reconciled, the chief part 

 of those that remain (with the exception of Forskall, of whose descriptions we cannot make any 

 thing) may be placed to the score of varieties. The list of synonyms, he is perfectly aware, might 

 have been increased to a much greater extent, but this would have much extended the work, and 

 not, he conceives, have answered any good purpose. Many new species are also for the first 

 time described : for the unlimited use of the specimens lately brought home by him from South 

 Africa, and now exhibiting at Egyptian Hall, the author takes this opportunity of thanking Dr. 

 Andrew Smith, who will shortly publish plates of the new species of that valuable collection in this 

 and the other classes. His warmest thanks also are due to the gentlemen in charge of the National 

 Collection, and to the Council and Curators of the Zoological Society, for the facilities afforded him 

 in examining their respective collections. To the Earl of Derby, Charles Darwin, Esq. William 

 Yarrell, Esq. and also to the author of that beautiful work the " Birds of Europe," he is much 

 indebted for access to their notes and specimens. In the course of the work anatomical cha- 

 racters have for the first time been used for families, sub-families, and genera, where the author 

 considered he had sufficient grounds to establish them ; but as the number of specimens of foreign 

 anatkke he has been enabled to obtain in a fit state for dissection has necessarily been very limited, 

 he earnestly requests the assistance of those gentlemen who have it in their power towards this 

 important branch, in forwarding to him foreign specimens for dissection, recent or preserved in 

 spirits or brine, which he shall always think well worth carriage from any distance. 



Since the greater part of this work was printed we have received Mr. Swainson's volume of 

 Dr. Lardner's Cyclopaedia, entitled "Animals in Menageries." There is little new in it as regards 

 the class we at present are endeavouring to illustrate, the greater part of the letter-press being 

 copied from Latham. The following changes in nomenclature, however, occur, as regards which 

 we shall leave our readers to judge for themselves, merely stating that Ave cannot agree with 

 Mr. Swainson in them: viz. the specific name of the only known species of Coreopsis is changed 

 from Nova Holland™ to Australia; the semipalmated goose ( Anas semipalmata, Lath. Choris- 

 topus semipalmata nobis) is placed in Dendrocygna, Sw. being the same genus in which Anas 



