On Mr. Svvainson's Views of Natural Arrangement. 41 stand as a distinct genus, being quite different from Cymindis. (N.B. Temminck's PI. Col. 87. can hardly be the F. nitidus of Latham, whose expression " legs long," agrees better with the F. hemidacty-lus, Tem. PI. Col. 3.) The genus Asturwas founded by Lacepede in 1799, and is there-fore clearly prior to Dcedalion, Sav. VI. — Mb. Shuckard on his falsely alleged participation in Mr. Swainson^s views of Natural Arrangement, To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. Gentlemen, I APPEAL to you to do me justice against the impression that may be made by what professes to be an ^^ Analytical notice of the 129th volume of Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia, enti-tled, ' On the History and Natural Arrangement of Insects,^ by William Swainson, F.R.S., &c., and JV. E. Shuckard, Libr. R.S., &c., published in the 3rd Number of ' The Ento-mologist,' written by Mr. Newman.^' In an advertisement prefixed to this volume of Lardner, dated from my residence, and of course emanating from me, I said, " Those paragraphs in this volume with the initials '' IV. E. Sh. are written by Mr. Shuckard, and where several " of these follow each other they are affixed to the last only ; " but the system of classification is exclusively Mr. Swain-" son's.'^ Now, notwithstanding this, which it will be seen below that the ^Analyst' was aware of, he says in the first page of his notice*, " I will now endeavour to show the views " entertained by Messrs. Swainson and Shuckard on the sub-"ject:" thus clearly identifying me with the whole scheme, for following this is given the dry systematic frame of the work. He then says, "A glance at this arrangement will " convince the reader that no charge of plagiarism can possi-" bly be brought against its authors :" thus confirming my identification with the system : and a line or two beneath this he again says, " If the views of Messrs. Swainson and Shuckard " display the slightest approach to nature, then are those of '^ Mr. Macleay the most distorted, wild and unnatural : there " is no point of similarity between the systems, except the " frequent recurrence of the number Five. The bold altera-'' tion made by the authors in separating the Diptera from ^' winged insects, is* the most striking feature in the new ar-"rangement; it proves them to be profound and original '^ thinkers, and not only this, it displays an indifference to the * The Entomologist, No. 111. p. 38.
VI.—Mr. Shuckard on his falsely alleged participation in Mr. Swainson's views of Natural Arrangement: To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History