VI 



PREFACE. 



fore secured-, but, in spite of that, there still remained a 

 residuum which had not yet been examined; so that to 

 bring together the species which were widely scattered over 

 the Journals, adding to them these new ones, as well as those 

 above referred to which had been obtained by the Messrs. 

 Crotch in the Canaries, and to amalgamate the whole with 

 the contents of my Catalogues already published throwing 

 it into systematic order, and correcting whatever might be 

 necessary, seemed worth the sacrifice, of time and attention, 

 which a task so laborious could scarcely fail to involve. 



In the present Treatise therefore I have endeavoured to 

 gather up all that has yet been registered on the Coleoptera 

 of these particular islands, fusing into it the additional matter 

 accumulated by recent explorers, and revising the whole in 

 accordance with the latest conclusions at which I have been 

 able to arrive on the question of classification and affinities. 



So far as my own work is concerned, although the elabora- 

 tion of this volume has occupied but eight or nine months, 

 its subject-matter may be said to have been in constant pro- 

 gress since the autumn of 1847 ^when I commenced my first 

 sojourn at Madeira. Three prolonged visits in that island, 

 undertaken at different periods of the year, supplied the basis 

 for my ' Insecta Maderensia/ which appeared in 1854 ; and 

 a subsequent residence there, during the summer of 1855, 

 added to the material which was placed in my hands by 

 various naturalists (including the Rev. R. T. Lowe, the late 

 Mr. Bewicke, Senhor Moniz, the Barao do Castello de Paiva, 

 Messrs. Leacock, Mason, Park, Ross, and others), enabled 

 me to prepare a more complete ' Catalogue of the Madeiran 

 Coleoptera/ which was published (by the Trustees of the 

 British Museum) in 1857. It was at the close of that same 

 year that my thoughts were first directed to the Canaries, 



