a dark spot was observed on the western horizon of Porto Santo. This was regarded by some with superstitious awe; but Zargo concluded it to be clouds attracted by high land; and shaping his course in that direction, in spite of the endeavours of his crew (by menaces and supplications) to prevent him, he discovered, in the year 1420, the island to which, from the trees that covered it, he gave the name of _Madeira_."--_A Sketch of Madeira_, London, 1851, p. 16. [19] Journal of Researches, pp. 209, 210. [20] Zoologist, x. 3616. [21] Considering that I have already detected more than one thousand species in those islands, it may perhaps be questioned whether the same truth _is_ to be gathered from the result of my Madeiran researches. I would wish it therefore to be understood, first, that my statement refers to that group _as contrasted with countries in a similar latitude_; and, secondly, that its _real_ fauna is alone taken into account,--the host of introductions from more northern regions, a large proportion of which have probably taken place within a very recent period (as may be fairly presumed from the knowledge that fresh arrivals, an almost necessary consequence of the importation of plants, _are_ occurring nearly every season), having been dismissed from our present inquiry. [22] I perceive, on reference to the original examples, still in my collection, that this was wrongly quoted as the _Haltica rufipes_. It is the _H. exoleta_, Fabr., and it is thus entered in Messrs. Hardy and Bold's 'Catalogue of the Insects of Northumberland and Durham;' where they make the observation, "variable in colour; specimens from the sea-coast are frequently of a dark mahogany tint." I have myself indeed, since I communicated the above remarks to the 'Zoologist,' taken its precise counterpart, in abundance, along the Yorkshire coast,--from Bridlington to the extremity of Flamborough Head; so that it may perhaps be regarded as a topographical state which is more especially peculiar to the eastern shores of England, north of the Humber. [23] Zoologist, iv. pp. 1283, 1284. [24] Geodephaga Britannica (London, 1854), p. 186. [25] Zoologist, iii. p. 900. [26] Zoologist, v. p. 1941. [27] Monographie des _Anthicus_ (Paris, 1848), p. 149. [28] _Id._ pp. 127, 128. [29] Proceedings of the Entomological Society of London (Part 3. New Series), p. 4. [30] Insecta Maderensia, pp. 55, 56. [31] Trans. of the Ent. Soc. of London, ii. pp. 59, 62.