204 REVIEWS. 



the monotony of a winter's exile in a distant land. In November of the 

 following year, however, another migration being recommended, Mr. 

 Wollaston decided on " making a virtue of necessity," and turning his 

 second banishment to a more practical account than the first one ; and, 

 consequently, started, with the full intention of accumulating matter for 

 publication. Having been rewarded, however, in this second expedition, 

 with more success than he had reason to anticipate, and having convinced 

 himself that he had obtained the major part of the species which were 

 to be met with between the limits of October and June, he felt that a 

 summer's observation, in situ, was the main thing required to render his 

 knowledge of the Coleopterous fauna tolerably complete. Hence, in May, 

 1850, at the instigation of the Rev. R. T. Lowe, the British chaplain and 

 sole guardian of natural science in Madeira, having procured a tent, Mr. 

 Wollaston again set sail for the island, prepared to take up his abode, 

 during the hotter period, in districts as yet but imperfectly explored ; and 

 by thus applying himself in good earnest (at elevations, moreover, difficult 

 of access, except at that peculiar season), he was in a position, at the close 

 of his third sojourn, to attempt the lengthened and systematic treatise 

 which is presented to the scientific world in this volume. 



With regard to the fauna, Mr. Wollaston says — " The intermediate 

 situation of Madeira, which, while pertaining artificially to Europe, has 

 much in common with the north of Africa, imparts to it an interest, the 

 importance of which the student of Zoological Geography cannot fail at 

 once to recognise. If we scan the results arrived at in the following 

 pages, we shall perceive that there is positive ground for the belief that 

 its Coleopterous fauna is, in a large measure, of a very isolated type. 

 Although partaking, in the main, of that particular stamp which is called 

 Mediterranean, yet the number of endemic species (and even of genera) 

 would seem to be so great — whilst the new modifications, which have 

 been brought to light, are so extremely characteristic, and adjusted to the 

 peculiar nature of the country in which they are placed — that we cannot 

 resist the conclusion, that whatever may have been the extent or condition 

 of that ancient continent, of which these several Atlantic clusters are the 

 sure witnesses, that portion of it, at any rate, which the Madeiras may be 

 supposed to represent, was not only singularly rich in creations adapted 

 specially to itself, but also that the various forms must have migrated, but 

 very slightly, ere the land of passage was destroyed ; seeing that many of 

 them had apparently not even reached those points of its area which are 

 now the detached portions of the actual group. This fact is proved by 

 referring to such insects as the Tarphii — only a single one of which, out of 

 fifteen, occur in Madeira Proper ; and so in other instances. 



