were aiding in the slaughter of the unfortunate little reptiles, hut none, as far as I could detect, of the other Carabi or larger Harpalidae. C. cancellatus differs considerably from its congeners in its general habits, separated elytra, and rudimentary wings, which I think it possible may be used for flight; since however inadequate they may appear for such a purpose, they are at least as well adapted for it as those of Phosphuga atrata, which I have several times taken on the wing. I never saw, in any English work on Natural History, any notice of the power possessed by the Carabi (I can personally answer for C. cancellatus, nemoralis and violaceus) of ejecting an acrid fluid à posteriori with considerable force to a distance of six or eight inches, and generally so well directed as to strike their captor in the eye. This has not escaped the notice of the continental entomologists, and the incident quoted by Kirby and Spence (Introduction, ii. 244, 5th edition) is probably referable to it. The Carabi do not appear to be often infested with mites, at least to any extent; but in May, this year, a specimen of C. monilis was brought to me, so completely and thickly encrusted with closely-adhering parasites (I believe Uropoda) that I was not able to determine the species until I had partially removed them, which I did not effect without some difficulty. It was found under a garden pot, where it had probably been imprisoned, and then attacked, or rather overwhelmed, by this swarm of enemies. I am not aware that any of the Carabi, or indeed any of the Geodephaga except Broscus cephalotes (Zool. 271), prey on their own species when other food is to be had, but to the smaller Harpalidae they show no mercy: and I once found C. cancellatus making a meal on Abax striola, which I should have imagined almost a match for its assailant. C. violaceus I have very frequently found in houses infested by cockroaches and crickets, preying on these insects—and it seems to be the only species with these domestic habits, as I do not remember finding any of the other common species in such situations, except stray individuals, in localities where they were more numerous than C. violaceus. As I have been remarkably fortunate in the acquisition of the rarer British species, I subjoin a few localities. C. intricatus I took in August, 1836, near Holdsworthy in Devonshire, a remarkably fine female specimen, fully 15 lines long: and in September of the same year, I took a specimen of C. convexus at Winstanley hall in Lancashire. Of C. granulans I have a specimen that was taken by a friend, near Doncaster. And of C. purpurascens, which Stephens in his ' Manual ' has admitted as British, I at one time thought myself the possessor of the only authentic British specimen, which fell into my hands as follows. I was in the shop of a Natural- History dealer in London, when two ragged Spanish legionaries came in, whom he had employed to collect insects on the Surrey hills; and out of a vast number of specimens of all sorts thus obtained, he allowed me, for half-a-crown, to pick out what I wanted before he dried and set them, stipulating, with laudable caution, that I should take none of the Lucani, Cerambyces, and other showy species. I had certainly no reason to complain of the bargain thus made, as besides C. purpurascens, I acquired, I think, fifteen other species which were deficient in my cabinet. The names above given are those of the 2nd edition of Stephens's ' Nomenclature,' some of them, as cancellatus and granulatus, having been transposed in the ' Manual.'—Fredk. Holme; C.C.C. Oxford.
Note on Agonum affine. Of this insect, said by Stephens to be rare, I took twenty-eight specimens at the foot of a tree in Christchurch meadow, in January, 1836, but have not found it there since. Mr. Matthews has taken it at Weston-on-the-Green. Id.
Note on the Habits of some Species of Amara. Some species of this genus, contrary to the usual habits of the Harpalidae, counterfeit death when taken, folding back the antennae and limbs, and remaining motionless when taken into the hand; when
