386 Fauna Boreali- Americana. 



it were, all its orbits, great and small, to make a continuous 

 thread of them. So that it is a hopeless case to attempt an 

 arrangement according with nature in all its parts; vain man, 

 with all his boasted powers of intellect, cannot conceive, much 

 less utter and embody it." 



This view of the relations and concatenations of natural 

 objects has evidently been produced by a very extended ob- 

 servation of the relations of animals, as drawn from their 

 structural peculiarities. Our readers are aware of the old 

 theory, that the various members of the animal and vegetable 

 world were naturally arranged in a straight line, — from which 

 it would necessarily result, that no object could have more 

 than two relationships, — namely, with the one immediately 

 preceding, and the one immediately following it. This the- 

 ory was opposed by MacLeay, who maintained that although 

 the series of nature was linear, yet the line was circular, where- 

 by some of the members of one circle were brought into con- 

 tact with some of the members of the adjacent circles. The 

 views of Mr. Kirby are a still further extension of the oppo- 

 sition to the old theory, being evidently founded upon the 

 idea, that there exist numberless relations, by each of which 

 one animal is allied to others. Thus, taking the Staphylini- 

 dw, for example, we have one close relation with the sexton 

 beetles, (Necrophorus), another with the water-beetles, (Dy- 

 ticidw), the larvae of these two families having the greatest 

 possible resemblance ; another with the Carabidae^ by means 

 of Lesteva; another with the Cicindelidce, by means of Ste- 

 nus ; another with the Nitidulx, by means of Micropeplus ; 

 another with the Scydmcenidae, by means of Pselaphus. Now 

 it must be evident that a far greater degree of attention and 

 minute investigation than has hitherto been devoted to the 

 subject, will alone enable us to discover the greater or less 

 value of these various relations, but which are, however, e- 

 vidently so numerous, that a linear series cannot be main- 

 tained. Mr. Kirby therefore says, a it has been my endea- 

 vour principally to make my groups as near to nature as pos- 

 sible, but with regard to the series and concatenations of them, 

 for the reasons above assigned, it was not possible to place 

 them upon paper, as they are inscribed by the Great Author 

 of nature in her pages." 



Mr. Kirby has adopted the primary division of insects into 

 the mandibulated and haustellated sub-classes, commencing 

 the series with the Coleoptera, at the head of which the Ci- 

 cindelidce or tiger beetles are placed, with this observation. 

 "Amongst the higher animals, the lion, chief of the predace- 

 ous quadrupeds, is usually accounted the king of beasts; a 



