PKEFACE. 



It having been considered desirable to ascertain accurately the 

 natural productions of the Colony of Victoria, and to publish works 

 descriptive of them, on the plan of those issued by the Governments 

 of the different States of America, investigations were undertaken, 

 by order of the Victorian Government, to determine the Geology, 

 Botany, and Zoology of the Colony, to form collections illustrative of 

 each for the public use, and to make the necessary preparations for 

 such systematic publications on the subject as might be useful and 

 interesting to the general public, and contribute to the advancement 

 of science. 



As the geological and botanical investigations have already 

 approached completion, and their publication is far advanced, it 

 has been decided now to commence the publication of the third 

 branch completing the subject, namely, that of the Zoology or 

 indigenous members of the different classes of the animal kingdom. 



As the Fauna is not so well known as the Flora, it was a necessary 

 preliminary to the publication to have a large number of drawings 

 made, as opportunity arose, from the living or fresh examples of 

 many species of reptiles, fish, and the lower animals, which lose their 

 natural appearance shortly after death, and the true characters of 

 many of which were consequently as yet unknown, as they had 

 only been described from preserved specimens. A Prodromus, or 



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