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ADVERTISEMENT.

ONE of the objects originally contemplated by the publication of the "Naturalist's Library," was to direct more general attention to the delightful and important study of Natural Science. In its wide domain there is ample scope for the gratification of the most diversified tastes, and the only difficulty consists in at first selecting such objects as are best calculated both to please the eye and enlighten the understanding. In the volumes already published, we have given a specimen of the beauties of nature in those gems of creation the Humming-Birds; and in the Monkey and Feline tribes, an exemplification of the wonderful instincts, structure, and muscular powers of the lower animals. It has thus been our endeavour both to gratify and instruct; and the remarkable encouragement which has been given to the undertaking, is the best proof of the plan of the work being approved of, and of our labours being duly appreciated by the public.

Ornithology, whether regarded in a scientific, a moral, or a commercial point of view, is a department of Natural History which justly merits particular attention. It is a subject, too, a general knowledge of which, from the comparatively limited number of genera and species, may be easily acquired, and with some of which every one is more or less acquainted from his earliest years. We therefore now present to the public the first volume of the "Natural History of the Gallinaceous Birds," an Order which includes all the Game-birds and all our domestic poultry. The descriptions and illustrations of these will probably be comprised in three or four volumes, with the last of which a Synopsis of the whole will be given.

The very interesting Memoir of the Father of Natural Science, ARISTOTLE, will, we doubt not, prove highly acceptable and satisfactory to our readers. It is from the able pen of our esteemed friend the Rev. Andrew Crichton, to whom we beg to offer our sincere thanks for his kind assistance on this occasion. We likewise are indebted to Mr Gould for the handsome manner in which he permitted us the use of his magnificent work the "Century of Birds ;"—and have to apologise to Mr Audubon, the distinguished and indefatigable American

ornithologist, for the liberty we have taken in copying his "Female Turkey and Young," and whose absence from this country alone prevented permission being solicited.

We beg again to assure our subscribers and the public, that every exertion will be used to maintain the pre-eminent character which the Naturalist's Library has already obtained. In the drawing department, we are enabled to promise the continued aid of Mr Stewart, to whom we have been already obliged for his able assistance, and beg to return our acknowledgments for his drawings from which the following Plates in the present volume have been engraved :

Pavo muticus. Plate IV.

Phasianus torquatus. Plate XIII.
Phasianus pictus. Plate XVIII.
Euplocomus ignitus. Plate XIX.
Numidia meleagris. Plate XXIX.
Vignette title-page, Gallus Bankiva.

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