Produced by Chris Curnow, Keith Edkins and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) Transcriber's note: The listed Addenda & Corrigenda have been applied. Deleted sections are marked as ... * * * * * Zoological Illustrations, OR ORIGINAL FIGURES AND DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW, RARE, OR INTERESTING ANIMALS, SELECTED CHIEFLY FROM THE CLASSES OF Ornithology, Entomology, and Conchology, AND ARRANGED ON THE PRINCIPLES OF CUVIER AND OTHER MODERN ZOOLOGISTS. * * * * * BY WILLIAM SWAINSON, F.R.S., F.L.S., MEMBER OF THE WERNERIAN SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, ETC. * * * * * VOL. I. * * * * * London: PRINTED BY R. AND A. TAYLOR, SHOE-LANE: FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AND JOY, PATERNOSTER-ROW; AND W. WOOD, STRAND. * * * * * 1820-1. * * * * * PREFACE. * * * * * The termination of the first volume of the Zoological Illustrations is accomplished, and its contents will not only enable our readers to discern the nature of the work, but likewise to form a judgement, on that degree of improvement which we have introduced since its first publication, and they may safely rely on the continuation being in no respect inferior. In commencing a work of this nature, we have had two principal objects in view: the diffusion of original observations, which, while they might further the ends of science, would also be interesting to the general reader; and that of discouraging the publication of distorted figures copied from old authors, by accustoming the public eye to original designs and correct representations of natural objects. How far we may have succeeded in this latter object, remains to be judged by others; we are however satisfied with having made the attempt, and we hope that abler pencils than our own, may engage in the prosecution of this most desirable object; for it is only by the publication of original matter, that a check can be given to the increasing number of compilations and multiplied copies of "ill-shaped" figures, by which error is perpetuated, and science retarded.