^40 



PINTADO. 



southern regions, and but little is known of their 

 manners. 



It may be observed that I have introduced several 

 new genera into the arrangement of the Natatorial 

 Birds, in spite of the prejudices that are so predomi- 

 nant, both in this country and on the Continent, 

 against the adoption of any that are not to be found in 

 the w^orks of Linn 6 or his immediate followers : but 

 experience having taught me, in a class of animals 

 more immediately under my examination than birds, 

 that the separation, or the promulgation of an un- 

 noticed genus has been the means of bringing many 

 species to light whose manners had been most indis- 

 criminately confounded (as witnessed among the 

 smaller Libellulidae, or Dragon^ics, where the Lin- 

 nean character of one species, yea, and that even in 

 some of the most recent publications on Entomology, 

 is so comprehensive, that it positively embraces no 

 less than two genera ^, one containing three, and the 

 other ten indigenous species, in its extensive grasp! 

 and the consequence has been, thatLatreille and other 

 celebrated Entomologists assert, that the sexes unite 

 together, and that the varieties resulting there- 

 from are innumerable; whereas the fact is, that these 

 insects are as particular in their amours as any others, 

 and the varieties are equally referable to their proper 

 species, the male, usually, however, differing from 

 the female in colour) ; I have therefore ventured, 

 from the slight notice of the Daption Capensis, in the 



Lcstes^ Leach, and Agrion^ Fab) ictus. 



