TO THE. 



R E A D E 



Have at length acquitted my feJf of the Pro- 

 mife I made the Tuhlick of a Second Volume of 

 my Natural Hiftory of Birds, and hope 'twill 

 find that favourahle Reception the former met 

 with among the Curious. I can affure them 

 1 have not been wanting in my Care and Application in the 

 Taintings^ all the Drawings having heen taken from the 

 Suh]€&s themfelveSy and the Dejcriptions agreeable thereto. 

 The Learned have been long fenfihle how defeBive De^ 

 fcriptions are towards a Natural Hijtory of the Animal and 

 Vegetable World without Figures, which when in proper 

 Colour give us a Tleafure, and certainly next to a View of 

 the Things themjelves. I have in this Work been parti- 

 cularly indujirious to .procure all the Engliili Birds I 

 could by my own, or the Interefi of my Friends-. From the 

 Time I undertook my Natural Hiftory of Infe(51:s, / had 

 an Ambition of making all imaginable Progrefs in painting 

 the natural Produ&s of this Ifiandj and have now an Hif- 

 tory of an hundred and eighty different,. Spiders in their pra- 

 per Colours ready to be publifhed... 



■m To 



