XX INTRODUCTION. 



In the first edition the Notes on the Birds and 

 Fishes will be found in Vol. IV., pp. 313 to 

 336, and the letters to Merrett in Vol. I., pp. 

 393 to 408. In the second edition both are 

 in Vol. III., pp. 311 to 335 and pp. 502 to 

 513 respectively. The references here, as a 

 rule, will be made to the 1836 edition, when 

 otherwise Bohn's edition will be specified. 



The foot-notes in Wilkin's edition, many of 

 them very curious, initialled "Wr.," are by 

 Dr. Christopher Wren, Dean of Windsor 

 (father of the Architect of St. Paul's Cathedral), 

 and were found on the margins of a copy of 

 the first edition of the Pseudodoxia now 

 preserved in the Bodleian Library at Oxford ; 

 those initialled " G." were written for Wilkin's 

 first edition by the late Miss Anna Gurney, 

 of Northrepps, near Cromer, Norfolk. 



The first papers to which I shall refer are a 

 series of rough notes contained for the most 

 part in volume 1830 of the Sloane MSS., the 

 first portion being devoted to Birds found in 

 Norfolk, followed by a similar series relating 

 to marine and freshwater Fishes, including a 

 few marine invertebrata and plants. They are 

 written on one side only of foolscap paper, 

 the portion relating to Birds occupying folios 

 5 to 19 inclusive, folios i to 4 consist of two 



