PREFACE. 
When the present work was announced, it was my intention that it should appear at regular 
intervals, and be continued until it comprised figures of every new and rare Mammal and Bird 
described in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, of which figures had not appeared 
in any other publication; but several circumstances have conspired to render its appearance irregular, 
and to induce me to determine upon its close long prior to the completion of my original views. 
The irregularity referred to is mainly attributable to my having found it advisable to resign my 
appointment of Curator to the Zoological Society, and to my having since made two Zoological 
excursions into the Northern parts of Africa, each of which necessarily caused an absence from 
England of some months duration. My determination to close it with the Seventieth Plate is 
due to my entire time being now occupied at Knowsley, in making a scientific catalogue of the 
magnificent Zoological collections belonging to my excellent patron the Right Honourable the Earl 
of Derby; collections unrivalled by any private, and equalled by few, if any, public ones, at home 
or abroad. 
Although the circumstances above referred to, have in a manner compelled me to bring the 
work to a premature close, the volume, such as it is, will not, I hope, be an unacceptable one to 
those Noblemen and Gentlemen who have honoured this, my first attempt, with their support, as well 
as to all who take an interest in Zoological science and literature, since it contains figures of twenty- 
eight Mammals and forty-six Birds, all of which are of particular interest as representations of 
specimens originally described by the respective authors, as the types of new genera or additional 
species of genera previously characterized; besides which the plates have been enriched with 
representations of many rare and beautiful plants. 
In the course of the work much valuable assistance has been rendered to me by the Right 
Honourable the Earl of Derby; The Honourable East India Company; Colonel W. H. Sykes, 
H. E. I. C. S.; John Skaife, Esq., of Blackburn; John Edward Gray, Esq.; and William Yarrell, 
Esq.: to all of whom I beg leave to tender my grateful acknowledgments for their many acts of 
kindness. 
My thanks are also due to Charles Couzens, Esq., by whom some of the earlier plates were 
executed; and especially to H. N. Turner, Jun., Esq., for the interest he has taken in the work, 
and the careful manner in which the drawings entrusted to him have been executed: nor must the 
attention of Mr. Triptree, of 6 Guildford Street, Walworth, by whom the plates have been coloured, 
be passed over unnoticed. 
LOUIS FRASER. 
