ADVEHTlSEirENT. 
nutter of serious importance, as it is obviously known 
that nothing can be more fugitive in general than the 
colours of the more resplendent creatures of this tribe 
many of which while alive and vigorous display the most 
fascinating emanations of colour; but snatched from their 
i^ative dement, those fervid hues alternately fade and 
rZri ' H of life, and, evanescent 
dL h ’ ''' '' expiring gasp of 
i he Public will be aware of the advantages which 
materials so collected have afforded the author in perfect- 
mg ins design. Those who have hitherto treated on British 
r.slies, however respectable, it is not to be denied, have 
sometimes been induced to describe species they have 
never seen, or ascertained from sufficient authority ; and 
errors have been thus foisted upon the public, without 
peihaps any latent motive for imposing on them, Of the 
t anger resulting from this, the author was so fully con- 
vinced in tlie outset of the present work, that he pro- 
posed to omit every kind which had not fallen under his 
own immediate observation, and of which examples even 
did not remain m his Museum, in order to remove every 
c oubt of scepticism as to the actual existenccof such splen- 
did and unusual creatures. To this intention he has in- 
variably adhered tliroughout, with the solitary exception 
of a single fish, the Cj/c/op/erus represented 
as will appear in tlie body of the work, on the authority of 
a drawing, communicated from a very respectable friend; 
* Plate 68. 
