134 
HABITS OF THE ADEPHAGA. 
Mr. Swainson will, I presume, denominate Cicindelidce the 44 sub-typical” or 
“ Raptorial group ” of the tribe Carabacea , and will no doubt sieze upon their 
peculiar markings as corroboration of his views. Colour, Mr. S. remarks, 44 is 
one of the most certain and unerring guides we can follow when searching after 
true analogies. * * * The Falcons are the only diurnal birds of prey wherein we 
find the plumage marked with broad transverse stripes or round spots, &c., and 
this is precisely the pattern which belongs to the Tigers, Leopards, &c. * * * * 
So universal , indeed, is this fact Qa 4 striped or spotted plumage 5 ], that we may 
pronounce it as the certain indication of a Raptorial type.” I have no hesitation 
(absurd as the Quinary method appears to me) in pointing out the corroboration 
Cicindela furnishes to the above views; at the same time, feeling convinced that 
had the fact been just the reverse, Mr. S. would have been ingenious enough to 
make it 44 square” with his system.f For what is impossible to an author who 
gives the dull-colour of the Grallatores as analogous to the brilliant plumage of 
the Humming-bird? The uninitiated reader may well ask how this apparent 
paradox is solved. 44 The characteristic of all Grallatorial birds,” says Mr. Swain¬ 
son, 44 and of other groups by which they are represented in Ornithology, is to 
have mineral or earthy colours; the Humming-bird shewing us the gems, and 
the grey and brown of the Waders and the Glires , the surface-colour of the 
earth ! !” J Comment is indeed unnecessary! 
2. Brachinidce are principally remarkable from the possession by the typical 
species of the explosive property described at p. 346 of Yol. IV. of The 
Naturalist. In addition to the details there given, it will not be uninteresting 
to notice the apparatus which produces the smoke. This,, according to M. 
Dufour, whose anatomical researches are highly valuable, is double, i. e., there 
is one on each side of the abdominal cavity. Each apparatus consists of two very 
distinct bodies, one of which is the preparatory organ, the other the conservatory 
organ. The first is more interior, and presents itself under two different aspects, 
according as it is contracted or dilated. In the former case it is a whitish body, 
irregularly rounded, appearing glandular, placed under the last rings of the 
abdomen, opening by one end into the reservoir, and constantly terminating at 
the other in a very long and narrow thread. When dilated it resembles an oblong 
4 In fact at p. 246 of the Treatise on the Geogr. and Class, of Animals , Mr. Swainson does 
give an example of a sub-typical group just the reverse to the views above quoted ;“We find,” 
says he, “ in the sub-typical order of the Annulosa (Aptera, L.) the different races of Scorpions , 
Acari , Spiders , and all those repulsive insects whose very aspect is forbidding ,” &c.! So much 
for Mr. Swainson’s “ universal fact ” ! 
t The above characteristic specimen of Quinary logic was unnoticed in my papers on the 
“ natural ” system in Loudon’s Magazine : indeed it would require a volume fully to expose Mr. 
Swainson’s inconsistent absurdities! 
