INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



occasionally spoken of them, without hesitation, as the " fragments 

 of a broken-up land." So far as any evidence can be gleaned 

 from their Coleopterous statistics, I am bound to repeat that I can 

 see no more difference between the Madeiras and Canaries than 

 what would naturally be looked for at stations distant from each 

 other to an equal extent on a continuous tract ; and it is some- 

 what to the purpose that the little rocks of the Salvages, which are 

 nearer to the latter, are (as regards most of the few species, as yet 

 found upon them, which are in the least degree characteristic) 

 essentially Canarian. That there are features distinctive of the 

 Madeiras and Canaries, as Groups, it is certain ; but (as just affirmed) 

 the same kind of differences might also be apparent in the separate 

 departments of many a continent ; whilst the mere fact that a far 

 more extensive surface is presented by the Canaries would in itself 

 account for the presence in that archipelago of numerous well- 

 known types (lately alluded to) which are absent from Madeira : 

 so that the " discrepancies " which have sometimes been insisted 

 upon, between the faunas in question, I am inclined to think, are, 

 in a great measure, more superficially- conspicuous than they are 

 truly and geographically significant. If anything, however, it would 

 seem as if the Canarian Coleoptera were more European (or, on the 

 whole, less isolated in their character) than those of the Madeiras ; 

 which, considering the more northern position of the latter Group, 

 is contrary to what we should have anticipated. 



What relation the fauna of the entire archipelago may bear to 

 that of the Azores, and of the Cape de Yerdes, remains yet to be 

 seen. 



