LONDON:
HENRY G. BOHN, 4, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
MDCCCXXXVII.
MR. DRURY'S PREFACE
TO THE FIRST EDITION.
VOL. III.
Grateful for the favourable reception the two preceding volumes of this work have met from the lovers of Natural History, it is with pleasure that I now present them, though late, with this my third and last volume, which has been completed in opposition to greater disadvantages and disappointments than attended either of the others.
It may not be superfluous to inform my readers, that this publication is the result of such leisure hours only as could be spared from an indispensable assiduity to immediate business, and a necessary attention, at that time, to an impaired constitution.
This being taken into consideration, little apology will be required for the length of time I have been in bringing it out, by those who know what trouble we must necessarily have with the various artists, who are employed in executing the different parts of such a work, and with what scrupulous exactness and care every minute part ought to be examined and corrected. This unavoidable delay, however, has been productive of another circumstance, which compels me to entreat all their candour and indulgence.