INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. XXI 



marvellously loose manner in which that list is strung together, as 

 well as in the wrong determination of nearly every species which 

 was not treated as new, in its entire freedom throughout from a 

 single remark of either local or scientific interest, and in its complete 

 silence on the great subject of habitats so essential to every fauna, 

 particularly one which treats of an island-Group, it is perhaps un- 

 equalled by any Catalogue (of like pretensions) on record. True it 

 is that the material which sufficed for compiling it was about as poor 

 and unsatisfactory as material could well be ; but still, bad as it 

 was, it might have been done more justice to than was the case ; 

 for when I examined the specimens in Paris I observed that nearly 

 all of them had the names appended of their particular islands, 

 whilst there were many small species amongst them which are not 

 even alluded to in the published list. Moreover I have elsewhere 

 recorded my belief that a few even of these 179 species are not Cana- 

 rian at all, but were brought from Madeira by Mr. Webb, and that 

 others were most likely either obtained from the opposite coast of 

 Morocco or else were captured alive in some of the many trading 

 vessels which ply between the Canarian islands and Mogadore*. 

 And I may further add that this suspicion is supported by the other- 

 wise almost inexplicable fact that the very small collection of MM. 

 Webb and Berthelot contains at least eleven species (after disposing 

 of a few others whose presence as "novelties" merely consists in 

 their being wrongly identified) which are totally unrepresented in 

 the enormous masses of material, numbering upwards of 30,000 

 specimens, which have been taken subsequently in the same field of 

 research, and which have passed through my own hands. This com- 

 pels me to look with distrust on at all events some of these eleven 

 species about seven of which are common European ones. Their 

 names are as follows : Dytiscus circumflexus, F. ; Berosus spinosus, 

 Stev. ; Attagenus pellio, L. ; Ootoma obscura, Br. ; Hesperophanes 

 roridus, Br. ; Clytus Webbii, Br. (probably a variety of the C. 4-punc- 

 tatus, F.) ; Mononyx variegatus, Br. (perhaps an Acalles) ; Tentyria 

 interrupta, Lat. ; Pimelia fornicata, Hbst (cited as the P. obesa, Sol.), 

 and sparsa, Br. ; and Ischnomera melanura, L. (quoted under the 

 title of " Dytilus rufus, Fisch."). I have nevertheless admitted 

 these eleven species into the fauna, though in each case my reasons 

 for doing so are published ; and I have sufficiently guarded myself 

 from recognizing them as positively Atlantic until further material 

 has been brought to light. There are four, however-, recorded by 

 * Cf. ' Cat. Can. Col.,' passim, but especially pp. 8, 55, 438, and 469. 



