INTRODUCTION. 
An anxious wish to add a portion, however humble, towards 
the illustration of those glorious works from which I have 
myself derived such abundant pleasure, together with a desire 
to impart to others a portion of such pleasure, led to the pro¬ 
duction of the present work; and however deficient in its ac¬ 
complishment, should it be the means of turning the attention 
of any to the pursuit of Natural History, my object will have 
been fully gained, and I shall have the happiness of knowing, 
that I have been partly the means of adding many a bright 
hour to their lives ; feeling, as I do, firmly convinced, that 
next to those pleasures to be derived from the discharge of 
more important duties, there is no pursuit so calculated to im¬ 
part the purest sensations of delight, and at the same time to 
elevate the mind; there is not a pursuit which diffuses the 
same serenity over the feelings, which soothes us in the hour 
of trouble, and which, when other pleasures flit away, continues 
to afford such undiminished enjoyment to the last. For my 
own part, that taste for Natural History which I have enjoyed 
from the earliest recollection, and which I regard as one of the 
choicest gifts of Providence, has proved to me an inestimable 
blessing. To its influence I owe all the brighter hours of my 
life ; whether, in the full enjoyment of health and happiness, I 
have trod the green fields, in the joyous spring, delighted with 
the early flowers and the first song of the Sky Lark ; or have 
wandered as a school-boy through the woods, “to pull the 
flower so gayor in the autumn of the year have traversed 
the heathery mountains, when purpled o’er with blossoms, to 
watch the flight of the moor bird, and listen to the busy hum 
