On Mr. Svvainson's Views of Natural Arrangement. 41 



stand as a distinct genus, being quite different from Cymindis. (N.B. 

 Temminck's PI. Col. 87. can hardly be the F. nitidus of Latham, 

 whose expression " legs long," agrees better with the F. hemidacty- 

 lus, Tem. PI. Col. 3.) 



The genus Asturwas founded by Lacepede in 1799, and is there- 

 fore clearly prior to Dcedalion, Sav. 



VI. — Mb. Shuckard on his falsely alleged participation in 

 Mr. Swainson^s views of Natural Arrangement, 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, 



I APPEAL to you to do me justice against the impression that 

 may be made by what professes to be an ^^ Analytical notice 

 of the 129th volume of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, enti- 

 tled, ' On the History and Natural Arrangement of Insects,^ 

 by William Swainson, F.R.S., &c., and JV. E. Shuckard, 

 Libr. R.S., &c., published in the 3rd Number of ' The Ento- 

 mologist,' written by Mr. Newman.^' 



In an advertisement prefixed to this volume of Lardner, 

 dated from my residence, and of course emanating from me, 

 I said, " Those paragraphs in this volume with the initials 

 '' IV. E. Sh. are written by Mr. Shuckard, and where several 

 " of these follow each other they are affixed to the last only ; 

 " but the system of classification is exclusively Mr. Swain- 

 " son's.'^ Now, notwithstanding this, which it will be seen 

 below that the ^Analyst' was aware of, he says in the first 

 page of his notice*, " I will now endeavour to show the views 

 " entertained by Messrs. Swainson and Shuckard on the sub- 

 "ject:" thus clearly identifying me with the whole scheme, 

 for following this is given the dry systematic frame of the 

 work. He then says, "A glance at this arrangement will 

 " convince the reader that no charge of plagiarism can possi- 

 " bly be brought against its authors :" thus confirming my 

 identification with the system : and a line or two beneath this 

 he again says, " If the views of Messrs. Swainson and Shuckard 

 " display the slightest approach to nature, then are those of 

 '^ Mr. Macleay the most distorted, wild and unnatural : there 

 " is no point of similarity between the systems, except the 

 " frequent recurrence of the number Five. The bold altera- 

 '' tion made by the authors in separating the Diptera from 

 ^' winged insects, is* the most striking feature in the new ar- 

 "rangement; it proves them to be profound and original 

 '^ thinkers, and not only this, it displays an indifference to the 



* The Entomologist, No. 111. p. 38. 



