VI PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



which was published some years ago in the Entomological 

 Magazine, I have likewise had an opportunity of examining, and 

 have the satisfaction of being able to state on his authority, that 

 the opinion which he at that time entertained with regard to 

 their supposed specific differences has since become materially 

 modified, and does not now differ in any important particular 

 from those which I have advanced respecting them. I have 

 been enabled, moreover, through the attention of others, and 

 especially through the facilities kindly afforded by M. Javet 

 in his periodical visits to this country, to compare with conti- 

 nental types several of our more obscure and doubtful forms, all 

 which has tended materially to facilitate my object. To my 

 obliging correspondent, M. Jacquelin-Duval, I am particularly 

 indebted for the careful consideration which he bestowed on 

 my collection of indigenous Bembidia, types of which he had 

 in his possession during the period in which he was engaged in 

 preparing his Monograph ' De Bembidiis Europseis ' ; and which 

 were returned to me accompanied by much useful information. 



Some important notes on a portion of the Carabida contained 

 in Mr. Stephen s's cabinet were made by Dr. Schaum, during his 

 first visit to England in 1846, which were communicated to me 

 at that time and subsequently published in the Stettin Transac- 

 tions, of which a translation appeared more recently in the 

 ' Annals and Magazine of Natural History ' : to the general 

 accuracy of those notes I am enabled to bear testimony ; and to 

 the kindness with which Mr. Stephens afforded me every facility 

 at all times for making myself thoroughly acquainted with the 

 contents of his cabinet, I have been indebted for the means of 

 identifying the species and correcting their arrangement*. 



I have been unwilling to reject any reputed indigenous species 

 which I felt that I could reasonably retain, and yet, after full 

 consideration, have been compelled to reduce their aggregate 

 amount very considerably, either because many of them are 

 evidently varieties of others, or because no sufficiently conclusive 

 evidence exists to warrant their retention in the British Fauna. 

 In the subfamily Bembidides, particularly, I have been compelled 

 to reject about two-fifths as mere varieties or immature examples, 



* Since Mr. Stephens's death his collections have become the property 

 of the nation, and are now in the British Museum. 



