Vlll 
PllEFACE. 
petition with this indefatigable naturalist, and would 
have left the work alone. Even now I would retire 
from the field if I thought my publication could in- 
juriously affect the success of his work. It will 
rather, I believe, have a contrary effect. The two 
books are essentially different in plan, size, and price, 
and the one may, I venture to hope, rather assist the 
other by stimulating an interest in the subject among 
some who have not hitherto had their attention directed 
this way. 
It would certainly have been more satisfactory to 
me if I had had the advantage of seeing Dr. Day’s 
new work before compiling my own book. He has 
doubtless collected a considerable amount of infor- 
mation not hitherto published, and has probably 
described some new species. 
It must be remembered, however, that no work on 
Natural History can be considered complete in the 
sense of containing all possible information ; what I 
have given here is fully sufficient, I trust, to fulfil 
the object of the book, and will be found, I hope, 
fairly accurate so far as it goes. 
