X 
PREFACE, 
In the translation of Gmelin’s edition of Linnaeus’s System 
of Nature, London 1802, Dr Turton has marked with an as- 
terisk all the species which he considered as indigenous to Bri- 
tain. This list is by far the most extensive of any which has 
yet appeared. The same industrious naturalist commenced in 
1807 a British Fauna, including the classes Mammalia, Birds, 
Amphibia, Fishes, and Worms. He has since still further ib 
lustrated the Shells of this country in his Conchohgical Dic^ 
tionary, and his still more valuable Bivalvia Britannica. 
Besides the authors now referred to, who aimed at the com- 
pletion of systems of British Zoology, other naturalists, equal- 
ly the followers of the Artificial Method, directed their atten- 
tion to the elucidation of particular tribes of indigenous ani- 
mals. As works of luxury in this department, may be noticed 
the figures published by Albin, Edwards, Lewin, and last of 
all those of Donovan, whose various publications have greatly 
contributed to advance the interests of the science, by facilitat- 
ing the naming of species. 
But there were other labourers during this era, whose efforts 
assumed a more scientific aspect. The late George Mon- 
tagu, Esq. of Knowle House, Devonshire, cultivated with 
zeal many departments of British Zoology. In 1802 he pub- 
lished his Ornithological Dictionary, which contained a few 
amended characters of species, and some new observations on 
their economy. In 1813 a Supplement to this Dictionary 
appeared, in which the author exhibited a more intimate ac- 
quaintance with his subject, traced the effects of age, sex, 
and season on the plumage of birds, and exposed many mis- 
takes in the establishment of species, which had been com- 
mitted from a want of attention to these circumstances. But 
Mr Montagu’s labours were not confined to Ornithology. In 
1803 the publication of his Testacea Britannica contributed 
greatly to extend a knowledge of the number and characters of 
the native Molluscous animals, and which was stiU further aug- 
mented by the Supplement to the same work, which appeared 
in 1808. It is but a just tribute to the candour of this natu- 
ralist to state, that in his writings he appears, progressively, to 
have been forsaking the Artificial Method, and acquiring a 
