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Show xviii PRE~'ACE TO THE J<'IRST EDITION. added to them, relative to the rest of the skeleton and to the mmcl~. . In the Mammalia I have brought back the Soh pedes to the Pachydermata_, and have divided the latter into families on a new plan; the Ruminantia I have placed after the Quadrupeds and the Sea-cow near the Cetacea. The arrangement of the Carnaria I have somewhat altered-the Ouistites have been wholly separated from the Monkeys, and a sort_ o.f parallelism between the pouched animals and other d1?1tated Mammalia indicated ; the whole from my own anatomical researches. All that I have given on the Quadrumana an~ the Bats is based on the recent and profound labours of my friend M. Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire. The researches of m~ brother, M. Frederick Cuvier, on the teeth of th~ Carn~ria and the Rodentia, have proved highly useful to me _In fornung the subgenera of these two orders. N otwithstandmg the gen.era of the late M. Illiger are but the results of these same .studies, and those of some foreign naturalists, I have adopted his names whenever my subgenera could be placed in ~i~ ?enera. .1 have also adopted M. de Lace pede's excellent diVISions of th1s description, but the characters of all the degrees and. all t~e indications of species have been taken from nature, either tn the cabinet of anatomy, or the galleries of the Museum. The same plan was pursued with respect to the Birds. I have examined with the greatest care and attention more than four thousand individuals in the Museum ; I arranged them agreeably to my views in the public gallery more than five years ago, and all that is said of this class has been dra~n. f~om that source. Thus, any resemblance which my subdiVISions may bear to some recent descriptions is on my side purely accidental(l ). Cl} This observation not having been sufficiently unde.rstood abroad, I am co~ptlled to repeat it here, and openly to declare a fact Witnessed by thousands m Paris-it is this, that all the birds in the public gallery of the Museum were. n~t_ned and arranged according to my system in 1811. Even such of _my subd1V1s10ns as I had not yet named were marked by particular signs. 'this IS my date. In· PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xix Naturalists, I hope, will approve of the numerous subgenera I have deemed it necessary to establish among the Birds of Prey, Passerinre, and Shore-Birds; they appear to me to have completely elucidated genera hitherto involved in much confusion. I have also marked, as exactly as I could, the correspondence of these subdivisions with the genera of MM. de Lacepede, Meyer, Wolf, Temminck, Savigny, and have referred to each of them all the species of which I could obtain a very positive knowledge. This laborious work will prove of value to those who may hereafter attempt a true history of Birds. The splendid works on Ornithology published within a few years, and those chiefly of M. Le Vaillant, which are filled with so many interesting observations, together with M. Vieillot's, have been of much assistance to me in designating with precision the species they represent. The general division of this class remains as I published it in 1798 in my "Tableau Elementaire( 1 )." The general division of Reptiles, by my friend M. Brongniart, I have thought proper to preserve, but I have prosecuted very extensive and laborious anatomical investigations to obtain my ulterior subdivisions. M. Oppel, as I have already stated, has partly taken advantage of these preparatory labours, and whenever my genera finally agreed with his, I have noticed the fact. The work of Daudin, indifferent as it is, has been useful to me for indications of details, but the particular divisions I have made in the genera Monitor and Gecko, are the product of my own observations on a great number of Reptiles recently brought to the Museum by Messrs Peron and Geoffroy. My labours with regard to the Fishes will probably be found to exceed those I have bestowed on the other vertebrated dependently of this, my first volume was printed in the beginning of 1816. Four volumes are not printed as quickly as a pamphlet of a few pages. I say no more. (Note to Ed. 1829.) (1) I only mention this, because an amiable naturalist, 1\'J. Vieillot, in a recent work has attributed to himself the union of the Picm with the Pa~seres. I had published it in 1798, with my other arrangements, so as to render them public in the Museum since 1811 and 1812. |