A D VERT I SEMEN T, 
IT becomes the duty of the Editor, as much as it is his 
inclination, to return his public and grateful acknow- 
ledgments to the Gentlemen, through whofe abilities and 
liberal communications, in the province of Natural Hiftory, 
he has been enabled to furmount thofe difficulties that ne- 
ceflarily attended the defcription of fo great a variety of ani- 
mals, prefented for the firfl: time to the obfervation of the 
Naturalift, and confequently in the clafs of Non-defcripts. 
Among thofe Gentlemen he has the honour, particularly, 
to reckon the names of Dr. Shaw ; Dr. Smith, the pofleffor of 
the celebrated Linnsean Colledion ; and John Hunter, Efq. 
who, to a fublime and inventive genius, happily unites a 
difinterefted and generous zeal for the promotion of natural 
fcience. 
The Public may rely, with the moft perfed confidence, 
on the care and accuracy with which the Drawings have 
been copied from nature, by Mifs Stone, Mr. Catton, Mr. 
Nodder, and other artifts ; and the Editor flatters himfelf 
the Engravings are all executed with equal corrednefs, 
by, or under the immediate infpedion of Mr. Milton. The 
Birds, 8cc. from which the drawings were taken are de- 
pofited in the Leverian Mufeum. 
A 2 
