PREFACE. . vii 



Society of London, I am bound to confess that I have received much useful 

 information and practical hints, — apart from the many facilities of reference 

 which they have most liberally afforded me. 



To Professor Heer, of Zurich, my especial acknowledgments are due, — not only 

 for the handsome manner in which he has laid the whole of his Madeiran collec- 

 tions at my disposal (refusing to describe even the novelties which he had himseK 

 discovered), but also for putting me in possession of his private notes, compiled at 

 Funchal during the winter of 1850 and the spring of 1851. 



To Dr. H. Schaum, of Berlin, who has spared no trouble in ministering to my 

 entomological wants, and to whose unexampled kindness I shall have frequent 

 occasion to allude throughout the present volume ; as well as to Professor 

 Bohemann, of Stockholm, for his ^ comparison of my Bhyncophora with the 

 Schonherrian types, I owe much. 



To MM. Javet, Chevrolat, Deyrolle, Jacquelin-Duval, Leon-Fairmaire, and 

 Dr. Axibe, of Paris ; as also to M. Dohrn, President of the Entomological Society 

 of Stettin, to M. Kiesenwetter of Leipzig, M. Motschulsky of St. Petersburgh, and 

 to T. S. Leacock, Esq., of Funchal, my recognition of services, in various ways 

 conferred, is gratefully conceded. 



And, lastly (though not least), to the Rev. R. T. Lowe, who, for upwards of 

 twenty years British Chaplain and the sole guardian of natural science in 

 Madeira, has not only consented to an invasion of his own field of research, but 

 has even co-operated with me (directly and indirectly), during my successive visits 

 to the island, to bring about the object which I had in view, I have incurred a 

 debt which will not be easily repaid. The generosity moreover with which he has 

 communicated, without reserve, both his local knowledge in the departments at 

 which I have been labouring and the result of his long experience in everything 

 connected with the country itself, demands my warmest thanks; whilst his 

 unbounded hospitality, not only to myself, but to hundreds who have been 

 similarly exiled under his control (too many, however, never to return), must not 

 remain unnoticed. 



