COLEOPTERA. Ill 



new names only, old friends in novel attire. But here was the 

 rub; and I must frankly admit that had not two kind friends 

 opportunely stepped in at this juncture to my assistance, I 

 should have abandoned my project in despair ; for, in the 

 greater number of these lists the contributors had entirely 

 omitted to append an author's name to the specific titles. 

 How far I ultimately succeeded in this division, admitting 

 the first and rejecting the second, I leave my readers, and 

 more especially the authors of the notices aforesaid, to decide. 

 Another difficulty I encountered, chiefly among the Ciircu- 

 lionidce, was the occurrence of names registered during the 

 transitional state of the nomenclature, in genera not yet re- 

 vised, or rather the revision of which has not yet been pub- 

 lished, by Mr. Walton, and concerning which I should 

 inevitably have committed several ridiculous blunders had 

 not the cabinets of Messrs. Stevens and Wollaston set me 

 aright. And here I would earnestly appeal to the gentleman, 

 to whom, for the last fifteen years, all engaged in the acqui- 

 sition and study of British Coleoptera have, I believe with- 

 out exception, hastened to communicate the rarities or 

 novelties with which industry and perseverance, and on 

 which success is invariably the attendant, has rewarded 

 them, — to whom all have silently but anxiously looked for 

 the accomplishment of the promise given nearly twelve 

 years since,*' but which, up to the present time, has been so 

 sparingly and intermittently carried out: not that I would 

 utter a single word in depreciation of leisurely investigation, 

 of which there is unfortunately palpably too great a lack in 

 many of the entomological essays of the present day, and 

 in which the characteristic of this precipitate go-ahead age 

 is a predominant feature; but, considering that the eighth of 



* Annals and Magazine of Natural History, vol. xiii. p. 81, February, 

 1844. 



