The Twelfth Number of this work is now respectfully submitted to the attention of the public. This number, accompanied by the Title Page and Index, renders the first volume complete. The Subscribers, therefore, are now enabled to form a correct idea of the nature and object of the undertaking: and from the style in which it has been so far conducted, to form some conclusion of that in which it is likely for the future to be continued.

The general approbation that has been bestowed already upon this publication can be best appreciated from the extent of sale, which, to say the least, has been respectable from the commencement, notwithstanding that the undertaking was began under the manifest disadvantage of being little known, and the very knowledge of its existence being still in no small degree circumscribed. It is not, therefore, without a sense of grateful feeling that the author has observed that besides the incidental sale of the different detached or monthly parts selected by purchasers desirous of the plates and descriptions of some particular object of rarity, that the number of regular subscribers, instead of diminishing, has rapidly advanced with the publication of each number in succession, and as it seems to appear in proportion as the public became better acquainted with its merits, and the more assured of its uninterrupted continuance. While this testimony of approbation prevails, the author of this undertaking will be duly stimulated to exert his best means of rendering it deserving of their consideration. Nor has he any hesitation in believing that it will be in his power, under the auspices of public favour, to produce a work of much elegance, and no mean utility, either as a work of taste for the library of the general reader, or the admirer of nature; the folios of the amateur, or the professed Study of the experienced Naturalist.

The commencement of this work was necessarily preceded by a few observations upon the nature and object of the undertaking: those observations are no less appropriate on the present occasion than the former, and for this reason we shall again advert to them in restating the intention the author has in view. The Naturalist’s Repository, or Monthly Miscellany of Exotic Natural History, is designed to comprehend in the most commodious form, a miscellaneous assemblage of elegantly coloured plates, with appropriate scientific and general descriptions of the most curious, scarce, and beautiful productions of nature that have been recently discovered in various parts of the world or may hereafter occur to the notice of the author; and more especially of such novelties as from their extreme rarity remain entirely undescribed, or which have not been duly noticed by any preceding Naturalist.

Most readers, it is presumed, will be aware that the labours of the authors life, during a course of many years have been directed to the pursuits of natural science: labours not confined to any one particular branch or department of the varied face of nature, but extending generally to the whole. The endeavours of the author to elucidate the Natural History of the British Isles are sufficiently known from the various extensive works which have been produced by him during the course of the last thirty years, and the magnitude which those works have at length acquired in the progressive course of publication that had been adopted, is the best criterion of the approbation that has attended them. But it is not within the views of the author in this place to expatiate upon a subject which might be deemed irrelevant, the works alluded to being devoted solely to the productions of our native country, while the avowed object of the present undertaking is to comprehend a selection of those only which are peculiar to foreign, and with few exceptions, to extra European climates. The chief motive of the author in adverting to those works, is to point out a style and mode of execution for the present undertaking, which, from the very extensive patronage those former labours of the author have experienced, may be considered applicable in a very peculiar degree to every purpose of correct elucidation, and as one most likely to ensure by its elegance and perfection that same proportion of general approbation which the other productions of the author have obtained.

With respect to the means within the author’s power of rendering this work deserving of the public notice, either as to the novelty, variety, rarity, or beauty of the various objects it is destined to embrace, the author must rather trust to the favourable opinion which the world may entertain in its behalf, from the examples now submitted to consideration, than to any preliminary observations he can offer: he shall only presume respectfully that they are adequate to the purpose, and calculated to answer every moderate expectation his preliminary observations may have excited.

It will be readily conceived that the opportunities of the author’s life, so assiduously devoted to the Science of Nature, must have enabled him to enrich his port feuilles with a collection of Drawings, Manuscripts, and Memoranda of no mean importance in all its branches. This is perfectly correct. His own Museum confined chiefly, but not exclusively, to the productions of Great Britain, have afforded many rarities, the offspring of foreign climates, which could not elsewhere be procured. But independently of those resources which his own collection has afforded, his other means have been amply extensive. Through the kindness of his scientific friends, he has had unlimited access to many other collections of acknowledged moment, for the purpose of enriching his Collectanea with drawings and descriptions of the more interesting rarities which those cabinets respectively contained. Some of those collections exist no longer and are probably now forgotten, but the memory of others, even among the number of those which have passed away, will ever be cherished with regret in the mind of every man of science by whom their merits were understood. The preservation even of the memorials of some minor portion of the rarities which those collections once embodied can scarcely fail to prove of interest at the present day, while their total loss to the rising generation will be in some degree appreciated from the memoranda and occasional references that will appear respecting them in the progress of the present work: to enumerate the many collections of private individuals, the rarities of which have contributed to render this collection of the author’s drawings important, would extend our advertisement far beyond our intended limits. It may be sufficient to observe that the late Leverian Museum, rich in every branch of Natural History, has tended in an eminent degree to this effect; the author having been favoured with unreserved permission to take drawings and memoranda of whatever he deemed important, besides having subsequently enriched his own Museum with a very ample portion of that fine collection, by public purchase, at the time of its dispersion; particularly in the different tribes of the Mammiferous animals, in Ornithology, Ichthyology, and various others; and also with every object materially important among the extraneous fossils which that splendid museum originally contained. It will be also seen from many of our pages that through the kindness of the late worthy President of the Royal Society, Sir Joseph Banks, the rich and truly scientific collection of that munificent patron of the sciences was ever open to us for the furtherance of our pursuits in Natural History; and of the object of the present work among others. The collections of Mr. Drury, and also that of Mr. Francillon, in the particular branches of Entomology, are too considerable to be passed slightly over: the rarities of both these collections have in an eminent degree improved our means of rendering this work important. And lastly we may mention among other scientific acquisitions the Collectanea of drawings formed by the pencil of the late Mr. Jones of Chelsea, together with the manuscripts of Fabricius in elucidation, as a treasure which cannot be too highly appreciated when we recollect the importance of the Fabrician writings on the continent, and remember also that those drawings afford the only illustration of the most splendid portion of the insect race which that author exclusively describes, and by which very many of the species can alone be now determined.

In conclusion of these remarks it may be observed, however, that while in our elucidation of those rarities which the collections and museums above adverted to have so amply afforded, we render a deserved tribute of record to the liberality of those whose services in the cause of Natural History have so amply contributed to its advancement in former days, the author will not remain unmindful of those advantages which the many valuable collections of the present period offer. It will appear as this work proceeds that he is in no small degree indebted to the favor of many eminent scientific characters of our time, as well as those who have preceded them, for their permission to take drawings and descriptions of such rarities in their collections as really appear worthy of distinct consideration. And it may be added finally that he shall at all times avail himself with pleasure, and acknowledge with thanks, any further advantages of the same kind which the favours of others may be induced to allow for the purpose of enriching the present undertaking.