xviii PER) B, Fi Al Ci Be 
of London, which may ferve as a Standard to refer to and compare with, to try the 
Truth of the Colouring, in cafe the Plates fhould outlive me, and any fhould queftion 
the Authority of the Colouring. I had thought when I firft fet out on this Work to 
have graved One hundred Plates of new Birds, but found I was under a necefity to 
leave off at Fifty, not being able to procure any more but fuch as have been defcribed by 
many others. Seeing it 1s now known that I have done thefe, and am willing to go on, 
if I can procure any more of curious Gentlemen, I hope fuch Gentlemen of Tafie this ways 
wwho have at any tune Birds new and curious, will please to give me notice, that I may 
qwait on them to take Drawings, which Favours I fhall always gratefully acknowledge. 
Tt is now my Duty to acknowledge, with all poffible Gratitude, the Afffiance I have. 
received from many curious Gentlemen, and give my publick Thanks in general for the 
many and great Favours I have received from thefe my honourable and worthy Patrons 
and Friends, who from time to time have given me free Accefs to their Houfes, and in- 
trufted me in their Cabinets of Curiofities, and have oftentimes lent me very valuable and 
curious Things in order to forward mein my Purfuits: Yet in the Courfe of thefe De- 
feriptions I for my own Reputation (im order to prove the Being of the Birds here repre- 
fented) have mentioned the Names in particular of my Patrons, Friends, and others, 
who were the Poffefors of thefe Things, that I might have no Opportunity to impofe 
Falfbood on the World, without being contradicted by living Witneffes. 
Thave made the Drawings of thefe Birds direétly from Nature, and bave, for Va- 
riety’s Sake, given them as many different Turns and Attitudes as I could invent: This 
I chofe the rather to do, becaufe I know great Complaint bath been made, that a late 
Writer on Birds had given his Birds no variety of Pofture, but that they were direct 
Profiles ftanding in the fame Pofition, which famenefs 1s difagreeable. I obferved alfo 
in bis Trees, Stumps, and Grounds, a poornefs of Invention ; therefore to amend that 
Part in mine, I have taken the Counfel and Affftance of fome Painters my particular 
Friends, in order to make the Work not only as natural and agreeable as I could in the 
fubje# Matter, but to decorate the Birds with airy Grounds, having fome little Inven- : 
tion in them: The better to fet off the whole, Ihave in a few Plates, where the Birds 
were very finall, added fome foreign Infecis to fill up the naked Spaces in the Plates; 
thefe 
