The P R E F A C E. 
1N this fituation was the Jludy of this part of Nat ural Hi/lory, at 
ihe^time when thefe volumes were wider taken. The Author thought it 
thet efore eligible, in that part , to proceed folely upon the plan of' his own 
thoughts, and that volume is written accordingly, in a manner different 
from all that has appeared upon the fubjeEl, and does not refer to any 
other work, or adopt the opinions of any other author. 
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>> ' i 
I have been accufed of eflablijhing a new method, and of introducing 
new words on this occafion : but it was necejfary, and therefore it was 
excufable. In regard to the fubjeEls of the two fucceeding volumes, others 
had written of them fcientifically, and they had been already arranged 
into, if not perfeEl, at leaf very rational methods. It had therefore been 
indeed culpable to have formed new fyflems, and introduced new words in 
thefe , becaufe it was not necejfary. Some good might have arifen from it; 
but that good would not have been proportioned to the trouble, which it would 
have occafwned to fuch as had already ftudied in thofe fyftems. 
TO avoid this, I have, both in the Hifory of Plants, and that of 
Animals, adopted fo much of the method of Linnceus, as is confifent with 
obfervation: and have, fo far as my examinations of the bodies would 
enable me^ filed up the deficiencies, and correEled the errors of that plan . 
The reader is not to underftand this, as regarding any part of the work, 
befide the char abler s, which are prefixed in a few lines to each genus : 
the defcriptions are, in general, formed from the objeEls themfelves; 
thofe which are not, that is, thofe which had for their fubjeEls plants or 
a?umals, of which neither my own private colleElion, nor that of any of our 
naturalifls, affordedfpecime?n, are the refult of a careful examination of 
what authors have faid, compared with one another. 
THAT I chofe the method of Linnceus for the arrangeme?U of thefe 
bodies, was, hi part, becaufe it is nearer a natural fyftem than that of any 
other, and, in part, becaufe it has been mofi read: thofe who ftudy thefe 
fubjeEls, had acquainted themfelves with his new names, much better than 
the old, and, not to load them with unneceffary words, I have, in as many 
parts as I could, retained thefe with their original fenfe. 
LIN N AP U S, though full of merit, is full of faults, as well as of 
imperfeElions. He has written no Hiflory either of plants or animals, fo 
that it was but very little in which I could be obliged to him, if I had in¬ 
clined to be fo ', and in that theinquiry has generally pointed out errors, which 
it was necejfary to amend. Where I depart from him in the charaElers of 
any fpecies, or of a genus, it is not in careleffnejs or wantonnefs, but from 
obfervation. I do not lay down his charaElers as perfeEl ; but charaElers 
of which his are the foundation; a?A which an examination of the bodies 
they concern, has altered or approved. 
A very 
