INTRODUCTION. V 



in its youth, that there is scarcely a district, even 

 in our own nation, of which we are able to be- 

 lieve that our knowledge of its Natural History 

 is nearly complete. 



Other reasons may be given for studying the 

 science in a particular district. It is known that 

 Animals are not indiscriminately scattered over 

 the face of the Earth ; but that certain species 

 are the inhabitants of regions, beyond the limits 

 of which their appearance is regarded as extra- 

 ordinary ; and the precise knowledge of those 

 limits, the reasons why they are confined to them, 

 with the changes which peculiarities of food and 

 climate effect in an individual, constituting what 

 Naturalists call a variety, are most likely to be 

 thus attained, and our acquaintance with nature 

 in general, so much the more improved. 



These observations apply with especial force to 

 the County of Cornwall. Situated at the extre- 

 mity of the Kingdom, and projecting into the 

 depths of the Atlantic, its position, climate and 

 mineralogical structure combine to assign it a dis- 

 tinguished place in natural science above most 

 other Counties of England ; in comparison with 

 which its quadrupeds and feathered inhabitants 

 are as numerous and various, while the residents 

 of its waters are even more so ; and taken together 

 they form such an aggregate of interest as will 

 well repay the attention of the enquirer. 



In laying before the public an enumeration of 

 these tribes and species, it has been the intention 

 first to ascertain the individual kinds, as they 

 are recognized by modern Naturalists ; in doing 

 which care has been taken to avoid a multiplicity 

 of references, that might have been easily collect- 

 ed to a large amount without a corresponding 

 increase of the reader's information ; for it must 

 be allowed that the more ancient writers are very 

 loose in their discrimination of species, and the 





