the peculiar species of beetles are much more numerous than among birds, both facts being quite in accordance with what we know of the habits of the two groups. We may also remark, that the small size and obscure characters of many of the beetles renders it probable that species now supposed to be peculiar, really inhabit some parts of Europe or North Africa. It is interesting to note that the two families which are pre-eminently wood, root, or seed eaters, are those which present the greatest amount of speciality. The two Elateridae alone exhibit remote affinities, the one with a Brazilian the other with a Madagascar group; while the only peculiar genera belong to the Rhyncophora, but are allied to European forms. These last almost certainly form a portion of the more ancient fauna of the islands which migrated to them in pre-glacial times, while the Brazilian elater appears to be the solitary example of a living insect brought by the Gulf Stream to these remote shores. The elater, having its nearest living ally in Madagascar (_Elastrus dolosus_), cannot be held to indicate any independent communication between these distant islands; but is more probably a relic of a once more widespread type which has only been able to maintain itself in these localities. Mr. Crotch states that there are some _species_ of beetles common to Madagascar and the Canary Islands, while there are several _genera_, common to Madagascar and South America, and some to Madagascar and Australia. The clue to these apparent anomalies is found in other genera being common to Madagascar, Africa, and South America, while others are Asiatic or Australian. Madagascar, in fact, has insect relations with every part of {256} the globe, and the only rational explanation of such facts is, that they are indications of very ancient and once widespread groups, maintaining themselves only in a few widely separated portions of what was at one time or another the area of their distribution.