liberality of Dr. H orsfield, under whose able superintendence the
whole is placed.
I have great pleasure in offering my best thanks to the Council of
the LiNNiEAN Society, who, with their usual liberality and love for
science, gave me free permission to make use of their noble collection
of Australian Birds. Many errors in their descriptions *- have been
thus detected, and the geographic range of several groups, confounded
with those of America, have been better ascertained.
I feel bound also to return my acknowledgments to the Council of
the Zoological Society for their well-intentioned permission to make
use of their Museum in Bruton-street; although, from the peculiar
wording of the order, and the subsequent prohibition by its officers of
taking notes, this permission, for all effectual purposes, was rendered
nugatory. The work, however, will not, I trust, suffer much from
this. Dr. Richardson has had free access to the northern species;
and the Museum, rich only in the ornithology of Java and Sumatra,
will bear no comparison, even in those productions, with the collections
made by MM. Duvaucel and Diard, now in Paris ; all of which, by the
liberality of MM. Cuvier and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, I have minutely
examined.
Sir W. J ardine, Bart., and P. J. Selby, Esq., the able authors of
the “ Illustrations of Ornithology,” have both materially contributed
to assist these researches, by transmitting to me, from time to time,
all new or dubious forms which have come to their respective museums.
When it is remembered that these gentlemen are themselves engaged
in publishing ornithological novelties, such disinterestedness demands
an especial and grateful acknowledgment.
To that enterprising traveller and accomplished naturalist, W illiam
J . B urchell, Esq., the public expression of my thanks cannot be here
omitted. His vast collections, formed in the interior of Southern
Africa, have been at all times open to m e; and it was here that I
became acquainted with the new Genus Cheeetops, so peculiarly interesting
as forming the Rasorial type of the Merulinte, connecting that
sub-family to the Crateropodinm.
Linn. Trans., xv.
Many other individuals have contributed their assistance in various
ways towards this attempt at illustrating the natural system. A
further enumeration might be tedious, but I cannot pass over the
liberality experienced from Sir J ames M'Gregor in allowing numerous
specimens from the Fort Pitt Museum at Chatham to be sent for
examination.—The great instruction I have derived from a large collection
of Mexican Birds in the possession of J ohn T aylor, Esq., the
well-known Secretary of the Geological Society—and an inspection of
the noble collection of drawings made under the superintendence of
General H ardwicke, during his Zoological researches in British
India.
It is almost unnecessary to add how much I am indebted to the
invaluable works of Le Vaillant, W ilson, Azara, and Sonnini,
since their names will so frequently occur in the following pages.
These men studied nature, unshackled by system, and they have thus
rendered their works imperishable. Of this school, it is deeply to be
lamented that nearly the only living member is my friend Mr. A udubon.
I regret much that his instructive Ornithological Biography issued
from the press nearly at the time this was terminated. It is replete
with facts of the highest interest. From purely systematic writers, I
have derived comparatively but little assistance.
Such have been the ample materials which I have now endeavoured
to combine; with what success it is not for me to judge. If such
parts of the great scheme of Nature as are already known have been
better illustrated, or one step has been made towards the further
developement of her first principles, my chief object has been
attained. Sw.