234 Bibhographical Notice. 
tion which they deserve, although the ‘ Histoire Naturelle des iles 
Canaries’ of Webb and Berthelot cannot be looked upon as a very 
satisfactory performance, and it has been reserved for an English 
naturalist to appreciate the whole interest attaching to a thorough 
examination of the fauna of the Atlantic islands, and to devote 
himself with almost unexampled zeal to the task of investigating at 
least the most considerable portion of their terrestrial inhabitants, the 
Insects. For more than eighteen years (for his first visit to Ma- 
deira dates back to 1847) Mr. Wollaston has been engaged in a most 
careful study of the islands of the Madeiran and Canarian groups, 
resulting in an enormous addition to the number of known species of 
Insects ; and his published works on the Coleoptera of these islands, 
the titles of the two latest of which stand at the head of this notice, 
must be regarded as among the most valuable additions to entomo- 
logical literature ever made in this country. 
The history of these publications is as follows :—In 1854, after 
three prolonged visits to Madeira, Mr. Wollaston published his 
‘Insecta Maderensia,’ a magnificent quarto volume containing de- 
scriptions of all the Coleoptera known to inhabit Madeira, and 
illustrated by a series of beautiful plates. This was supplemented, in 
1857, by a ‘Catalogue of Madeiran Coleoptera,’ published by the 
Trustees of the British Museum, and containing such additions as 
had been made to the list of Madeiran Beetles during the previous 
three years. The desirability of an examination of the Canary 
Islands then suggested itself to Mr. Wollaston, who subsequently 
spent two periods of more than six months each in those islands, and, 
collecting with his accustomed assiduity and success, brought home 
a mass of materials which showed the complete absurdity of the 
meagre list of Canarian Coleoptera given by Brullé in the great work 
of Webb and Berthelot. The elaboration of this material was the origin 
of the ‘ Catalogue of Canarian Coleoptera,’ published in 1864 by the 
authorities of the British Museum, Mr. Wollaston’s collections having 
been deposited in that establishment. But while this was in prepa- 
ration, several entomologists, including two of our best British 
Coleopterists, the Messrs. Crotch, were engaged in collecting in the 
Canaries ; and among the immense number of specimens obtained by 
them, a good many species were found which had not previously 
been detected. These were handed over to Mr. Wollaston for exa- 
mination; and their elaboration has led to the publication of the second 
work indicated at the head of this article, the ‘Coleoptera Atlantidum,’ 
which contains a complete synonymic catalogue, with observations 
upon known, and descriptions of new species, of the members of the 
order Coleoptera hitherto discovered in the three northern groups of 
Atlantic islands—the Madeiras, Salvages, and Canaries. 
When we come to examine the results of all this indefatigable 
work, both in the field and in the closet, we find that they are fully 
commensurate with the labour that their attainment has cost. M. 
Brullé, in the great French work above-mentioned, gives a list of 
only 179 species of beetles from the Canaries; and even some of these 
are considered by Mr. Wollaston, on apparently good grounds, not 
