VI 
PREFACE. 
common degree of excellence, in such delinea- 
tions. These, as well as the beautiful plates 
in Mr. Parkinson’s recent publication on orga- 
nic remains^', prove hoAv susceptible subjects of 
this kind are of that illustration from tinted 
drawings, which Naturalists, in general, have 
hitherto appropriated to their botanical and 
zoological labours. 
As I am not an engraver by profession, 
it may not be improper to observe, that the 
present etchings have been entirely executed 
by my own hand. — This must be my apolog}’^, 
for their wanting a certain neatness and unifor- 
mity rarely found except in the works of the 
regular artist. ^Accuracy of drawing is, how- 
ever, the first requisite in plates appendant to 
descriptions of natural objects: the figures now 
given to the public are not, I hope, destitute 
of so essential a particular. 
* The excellent drawings of Petrifactions occasionally given in Mr. Sowerby’s 
" British Mineralogy” ought also to be particularly noticed. 
