PREFACE vii 



Jenyns ; and of the Reptiles, by Mr. Bell. I have appended 

 to the descriptions ot each species an account of its habits and 

 range. These works, which I owe to the high talents and 

 disinterested zeal of the above distinguished authors, could not 

 have been undertaken had it not been for the liberality of the 

 Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, who, through 

 the representation of the Right Honourable the Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one 

 thousand pounds towards defraying part of the expenses of 

 publication. 



I have myself published separate volumes on the Structure 

 and Distribution of Coral Reefs , on the Volcanic Islands 

 visited during the Voyage of the Beagle ; and on the Geology of 

 South America. The sixth volume of the Geological Trans- 

 actions contains two papers of mine on the Erratic Boulders 

 and Volcanic Phenomena of South America. Messrs. Water- 

 house, Walker, Newman, and White, have published several 

 able papers on the Insects which were collected, and I trust 

 that many others will hereafter follow. The plants from the 

 southern parts of America will be given by Dr. J. Hooker, in 

 his great work on the Botany of the Southern Hemisphere. 

 The Flora of the Galapagos Archipelago is the subject of a 

 separate memoir by him, in the Linnean Transactions. The 

 Reverend Professor Henslow has published a list of the plants 

 collected by me at the Keeling Islands ; and the Reverend J. 

 M. Berkeley has described my cryptogamic plants. 



I shall have the pleasure of acknowledging the great 

 assistance which I have received from several other naturalists 

 in the course of this and my other works ; but I must be here 

 allowed to return my most sincere thanks to the Reverend 

 Professor Henslow, who, when I was an undergraduate at 

 Cambridge, was one chief means of giving me a taste for 

 Natural History, — who, during my absence, took charge of the 

 collections I sent home, and by his correspondence directed my 

 endeavours, — and who, since my return, has constantly rendered 

 me every assistance which the kindest friend could offer. 



Down, Bromley, Kent, 

 June 1845. 



