EI North American Histeroides. 33 
been received from this country. In the following pages sev- 
enty-five species are described ; probably not more than one 
half of what may be hereafter discovered ; for we have seen 
none that inhabit the northern and western parts of the conti- 
nent, the region of the Rocky Mountains, and the country 
beyond them, where all the productions of nature differ $0 rë- 
markably from what are found on the Atlantic coast. One 
species of Saprinus from the Oregon Territory, which we have 
seen, differed remarkably from every other species of the 
genus; it could not be considered as having any strie on the 
elytra. Eleven other species of this genus are said.to have 
been brought from the same country, but not a single Hister. 
Hereafter it ay be necessary to add a supplement to this 
paper, which w M. not fail to do, whenever a sufficient 
number of species shall be collected to render it proper. ` 
In following Mr. Erichson's distribution of this family into 
the genera which he has proposed in Klug's Entomological 
Annual, it isby no means to be understood, that an unqual- 
ified approbation is given to the arrangement of that distin- 
guished naturalist. Many of the generic characters on which 
he seems to place the greatest reliance, are far from being so 
. 8pparent as he supposes; and they frequently bring together 
. Species whose form, or habit, or manners ought to have placed 
. them far from each other. We have not however, attempted 
_ to remove any of these from the genera in which he has placed 
them ; but have been satisfied with pointing out the more ev- 
. Ment discrepancies. dà 
e 
nomenclature, 
the name gi 
à 
