Nor must I conclude my acknowledgements of the kindness of those who
have rendered me their aid, without especially recording the liberality
of the Right Hon. The Earl of Derby, who has at all times most readily
submitted to my inspection every collection of which he has become the
possessor, and allowed me the free use of any objects desirable for the
enhancement of the “Birds of Australia;” neither is the kindness of His
Highness the Prince of Canino, Sir Wm. Jardine, Bart., Robert Brown,
Professor Owen, H. E. Strickland, W. Yarrell, T. C. Eyton, J. J.
Bennett, D. W. Mitchell, and E. Blyth, Esqs., forgotten by one whom they
have ever been sedulous to oblige. My thanks are also due to the
Trustees, to J. E. Gray, and G. R. Gray, Esqs., of the British Museum;
and to the authorities of the Linnean and Zoological Societies of
London, the Royal Museums of Berlin, Leyden and Paris, and the Museum at
Sydney. I am also considerably indebted to my friend W. C. L. Martin,
Esq., author of many valuable works and papers on natural history, for
the readiness with which his varied literary attainments and critical
acumen have at all times been rendered, whenever solicited, to enhance
the accuracy of my labours.
At the conclusion of my “Birds of Europe,” I had the pleasing duty of
stating that nearly the whole of the Plates had been lithographed by my
amiable wife. Would that I had the happiness of recording a similar
statement with regard to the present work; but such, alas! is not the
case, it having pleased the All-wise Disposer of Events to remove her
from this sublunary world within one short year after our return from
Australia, during her sojourn in which country an immense mass of
drawings, both ornithological and botanical, were made by her inimitable
hand and pencil, and which has enabled Mr. H. C. Richter, to whom, after
her lamented death, the execution of the Plates was entrusted, to
perform his task in a manner highly satisfactory to myself, and I trust
equally so to the Subscribers. The colouring, as in the case of the
“Birds of Europe,” and my other works, has been entirely executed by Mr.
Bayfield, to whose unwearied exertions and punctuality I must not fail
to bear testimony, as well as to the minute accuracy with which his
labours have been performed. The printing of the Plates, by Messrs.
Hullmandel and Walton, and the letter-press, by Messrs. R. and J. E.
Taylor, has also been equally satisfactory.
And I cannot refrain from speaking in the highest terms of my assistant,
Mr. Edwin C. Prince, who has been with me from the commencement of my
various works. I left him in charge of the whole of my affairs during my
absence from England, with a perfect conviction that he would zealously
exert himself for my interest, and the confidence I reposed in him has
been fully realized, not only during my absence, but during the long
period of eighteen years.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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