INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 1x 
We have therefore four sets of beings to take into account : 
Ist, those which are manifestly introduced, being (from their 
modes of subsistence) constantly liable to importation into the islands 
by direct human agencies ; 
2ndly, those which have been probably naturalized, through 
various accidental circumstances, since the commencement of the 
period at which the Madeiras were first colonized ; 
3rdly, those which are indigenous, but which have probably 
migrated thither, at a remote epoch, through regular and natural 
processes,—whether over a land of passage, or transported from more 
northern latitudes (during other conditions of climate) on floating 
masses of ice; and 
4thly, those which were created in that region, and which still 
remain endemic,—not haying been able, even to this day (the result 
partly, perhaps, of their after-isolation), to extend themselves far 
beyond the primeval areas of their birth. 
Bearing in mind therefore the special characters of these four 
Coleopterous assortments, we will make a few practical remarks on 
our general statistics,—making use, however, of the above (somewhat 
finely-drawn) distinctions only in those cases in which the applica- 
tion of them would seem sufficiently simple and apparent to warrant 
anything like satisfactory conclusions being deduced from them. 
Let us first observe, then, that out of the 580 species which have 
been detected in the Madeiran Group, 45, at any rate (if not a greater 
number), are manifestly of recent importation; that at least 75 have 
probably found their way thither, through various accidental causes, 
since the islands were first colonized; and that the remaining 460 
are apparently indigenous,—only 266 of which, however, come 
under the class which we have defined as “ ultra-indigenous*”’ (the 
other 194 haying possibly migrated from neighbouring regions, by 
regular and natural processes, at some remote epoch when facilities 
were offered which do not now exist for letting-in the members of 
adjoining tracts over this ancient Atlantic province). 
But, before we proceed, we may just pause to notice a small col- 
lateral result which the above statement will enable us to arrive at. 


* JT have preferred this term (however barbarous) to ‘‘ endemic,” because it 
conveys amore correct notion of the creatures to which it is applied. Had I 
used the latter word, I could scarcely (with only the probdadility to justify me, 
of certain of the species occurring elsewhere also) have consistently withheld it 
from any of the Coleoptera which have hitherto been observed exclusively at the 
Madeiras,—the result in many instances, as I cannot but believe, of the merest 
accident. I would repeat therefore, that the imsects thus designated have a 
better reason for being regarded as par excellence indigenous, than that which 
the fact (important as it necessarily is) of their not having been as yel discovered 
elsewhere does, of itself, afford. 
