few inftances; and for which- alteration good reafons will be
giyen.
The whole of this undertaking will be comprifed in three volumes
; the firft of which will contain the Accipitres and Pica
of Linnaus; the fecond will conlift of the PaJJeres and Gallina of
the fame author; and the third volume clofe the work with his
Gralla and Anferes. To each volume will be-added a. complete
Index of its contents, and in the laft, an Explanation at length
of the authors referred to; alfo, a Generic Catalogue of the Birds
mentioned throughout the work.
In thefe Iheets will be found near four times the number of
Birds mentioned in the Syftema Nat lira ; the additions to v nich
will be drawn from the authors which have appeared fince that
publication, added to a great number of fpecies, not mentioned
before by any one. This we lhall be enabled to do, from the: numerous
collections in Natural Hiftory *, which have been formed
of late years in England, and in which, in courfe, a multitude of
new fubjeCts. have been introduced from various parts of the
world; but more elpecially within thefe few years, from the indefatigable
refearches of thofe who have made fo great difcoveries
in the Southern. Ocean.
# Among thefe, the magnificent one at Leicefier Houfe, formed by Six Ajhton.
Lever, ought to be particularly mentioned; as likewife the favours received
from the infpefition of numerous fubjedts, the produce of the laft and the former
voyages to the Smith Seas, in the poffeffion of Jof. Banks, Efq; P. R. S. Soho
Square-
It
It will be neceffary, however, to remark, that on account of
the uncertainty of the return of the laft circumnavigating Ihips,
the Accipitrine order, here firft published, was printed off before
their arrival in England, by which means a few new fpecies of
the Falcon genus have been excluded from their -place. This
has, of neceffity, obliged us to introduce them by means of duplicate
pages, marked with an afterifk.
To each. Genus will be joined one capper-plate at leafi, of
fome new Bird not figured before, if poffible, for two reafons;
the one to point out to the eye of the lefs-informed Naturalift,
wherein one genus differs from another; the other, to add fome-
what to the ftock of engravings in Ornithology.
. In a work of this kind, it will be expeCted, that we fhould begin
with an Introduction on the Nature of the Feathered Creation;
fuch as general manners, nidification, incubation, migration
of particular fpecies, and fuch-like; but this fubjeft has
been treated of in another work * in the moft ample manner, and
will therefore make it altogether unneceffary, becaufe all that I
could do on this head, muft prove only a repetition of what is
there mentioned.
I have, therefore, nothing more to add, but a juft acknowledgment
of the very great obligations I am under to many of my
e J S I t S l f ude t0’ is the Genera of Birds, by Thomas Pennant,
f c g h e a d “ “ CTery * r > £ -ader’s information.
friends,,