vi 



PREFACE 



Medicinal Botany, these collections embraced only the 

 Zoological productions of the region. The following is an 

 approximative enumeration of the total number of species of 

 the various classes which I obtained : 



Mammals 



Birds 



Reptiles 



Fishes 



Insects 



Mollusks 



Zoophytes 



52 

 360 

 140 

 120 

 14,000 

 35 

 5 



14,712 



The part of the Amazons region where I resided longest 

 being unexplored country to the Naturalist, no less than 

 8000 of the species here enumerated were new to science^ 

 and these are now occupying the busy pens of a number of 

 learned men in different parts of Europe to describe them. 

 The few new mammals have been named by Dr Gray ; the 

 birds by Dr Sclater ; the zoophytes by Dr Bowerbank ; and 

 the more numerous novelties in reptiles and fishes are now 

 in course of publication by Dr Gunther. 



A word will perhaps be here in place with reference to 

 what has become of these large collections. It will be an 

 occasion for regret to many Naturalists to learn that a com- 

 plete set of the species has nowhere been preserved, seeing 

 that this would have formed a fair illustration of the Fauna 

 of a region not likely to be explored again for the same pur- 

 pose in our time. The limited means of a private traveller 

 do not admit of his keeping, for a purely scientific end, a 

 large collection. A considerable number, from many of the 

 consignments which arrived in London from time to time, 

 were chosen for the British Museum, so that the largest set 

 next to my own is contained in our National Collection ; but 

 this probably comprises less than half the total number of 

 species obtained. My very complete private collection of 

 insects of nearly all the orders, which was especially valuable 

 as containing the various connecting varieties, ticketed with 

 their exact localities for the purpose of illustrating the forma- 

 tion of races, does not now exist in its entirety, a few large 

 groups having passed into private hands in different parts of 

 Europe. 



Leicester^ Jajitiary 1863. 



