On Mr. Swainsovi's Views of Natural Arrangement. 41 



stand as a distinct genus, being- quite different from Cymindis. (N.B. 

 Tomminck's PI. Col. 87. can hardly be the F. nltichis of Latham, 

 whose expression " legs long," agrees better with the F. hemidacty- 

 lus. Tern. PI. Col. 3.) 



The genus Asturx^'AS founded by Lacepede in 1799, and is there- 

 fore clearly prior to Dicdalion, Sav. 



VI. — Mr. Shtckard on his falsely alleged participation in 

 Mr. Swainson^s vieivs of Natural Arrangement. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Gentlemen, 



I APPEAL to you to do me justice against the impression that 

 may be made by what professes to be an " Analytical notice 

 of the 129th volume of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopffidia, enti- 

 tled, ' On the Histoiy and Natural Arrangement of Insects/ 

 by inil/am Swaifison, F.R.S., &c., and Jf. E. S/ruckard, 

 Libr. R.S., &c., pubhshed in the 3rd Number of * The Ento- 

 mologist/ wi'itten by Mr. Newman.'' 



In an advertisement prefixed to this volume of Lardner, 

 dated from my residence, and of course emanating from me, 

 I said, "Those paragraphs in this volume with the initials 

 '•' [F. E. Sh. are written by Mr. Shuckard, and where several 

 " of these follow each other they are affixed to the last only ; 

 " but the system of classification is exclusively Mr. Swain- 

 " son's." Now, notwithstanding this, which it will be seen 

 below that the ' Analyst ' was awai'e of, he says in the first 

 page of his notice *, " I N%'ill now endeavour to show the views 

 " entertained by Messrs. Swainso)i and Shuckard on the sub- 

 " ject :" thus clearly identifying me with the whole scheme, 

 for following this is given the dry systematic frame of the 

 work. He then says, " A glance at this arrangement will 

 " convince the reader that no charge of plagiarism can possi- 

 " bly be brought against its authors :" thus confirming my 

 identification with the system: and a line or two beneath this 

 he again says, " If the views oil Messrs. Swainson and Shuckard 

 "' display the slightest approach to nature, then are those of 

 *' Mr. Macleay the most distorted, wild and unnatural : there 

 " is no point of similarity between the systems, except the 

 " frequent recurrence of the number Five. The bold altera- 

 " tion made by the authors in separating the Diptera from 

 ^' winged insects, is the most striking feature in the new ar- 

 '' rangement ; it proves them to be profound and original 

 " thinkers, and not only this, it displays an iaditference to the 



* The Entomologist, No. III. p. 38. 



