preface. 
¥1 
In fyftematic arrangement, the ftuclent has this peculiar advantage 
that by immediately arriving at the name, the Whole of its knoE ’ 
qualities arc inamediately difpLayed to him : but without a fyftemaTic 
claflification, he wanders in obfcurity and uncertainty anM n 
colled the whole of its habits and peculiarities, before he can aftenai^ 
the individual he is examining, “naicertain 
The traveller, for example, who wifhes to colled the mor. . ' 
fubjeds of natural hiftory, finds a bird, whofe name habb^ 
nomy, he is defirous of inveftigating: from its c^nic th'*’ 
bill, {lender legs, and divided toes, he finds that it be onir^ 
Pafi-eres ; and from its thick, ftrong, convex bill, witfel 
dible bent in at the edges, and the tongue abrubtly cm off 7b "^^7 
he refers it to the genus Loxia or Groleak ; and lun Ji^b- 
the fpecific differences, he immcdialely determines it f ^ 
anfwering the fpecific charader “ Body above broivn’ 
ifii-white ; crown and brcafl pale yellow: chin hW 
Philippine Grofbeak, f Loxia Philipphia;) a little bird'7hv7b^fi7^ 
IS a native of the Philippine iflands, and endowed hv 
fiindive notions of prefervation and comfort, nearlv 
human intelligence; that it conftruds a curious neft 
fibres of plants or dry grafs, and fufpends it by a kinb 7^*^” *. 
half an ell long, from the end of a {lender branch of a t nearly 
be inaccelfible to fnakes, and fafe from the pryinp- i77’ r 
numerous monkeys which inhabit thofe regions : It 
cord is a gourd-ihaped neft, divided into three apartmenf ^7 F 
which is occupied by the male, the fecond by the fem7 
third containing the young; and in the firft apartment ’ . 
male keeps watch while the female is hatching, is nlarprt’ 
a little tough clay, and on the top of this clay is fixed 
to afford its inhabitants light in the night time. , ^ S^ow-worm 
That the Englifh ftudent may be put in poffeffion of this v,a . r 
comprehending and illuflratiiig all nature through the thr 
of animals, vegetables and minerals; I have undertaken 
from the laft edition of the Systema Naturas of r 
Gmeein, amended and enlarged by the improvements and 
of later naturalifts. ' additions 
The expediency of this tranflation has long been acknr.,. i a j 
and the want of it often lamented ; and it has been a prinoi7 1 
of the Editor, to deliver it in as intelligible and as ufrful a f 
the nature of fuch a work will admit. The Linnean terms am 
dered as nearly as polfible to the idiom of the Englilh language • '’7' 
general explanatory Diaionary of fuch as are peculiarly annW^ • 7 
to the fcience, is affixed to the laft volume. And for the7onvemc7cy 
of 
