200 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Tutt's work, need wish for nothing more. The information too, 

 though full of the minutest detail, is given in a way which renders 

 almost every page eminently readable. Take for example, the 

 account of the habits of Manduca atropos, the Death's-Head Moth. 

 Although the author states that scarcely anything is known of many 

 of the imaginal habits yet he manages to fill no less than 2 1 pages 

 with interesting information under this head. The whole account 

 of this well-known insect occupies 84 pages ! The present volume 

 completes the account of the Sphingidse, while at the end is given 

 an Appendix giving additional details concerning four species treated 

 of in the third, followed by supplementary remarks on others in the 

 fourth. Then comes a Catalogue of the Palaearctic Sphingides, a 

 good Index, a Synopsis of Contents of vols. i.-iv., and finally a 

 somewhat curiously arranged general Index to the whole work so 

 far as published. As a frontispiece we notice with pleasure an 

 excellent portrait of the author, executed in an admirable manner. 

 In turning over the pages of the work we notice many changes in 

 nomenclature, and every species dealt with is assigned to a separate 

 genus. This may surprise the collector who occupies himself 

 entirely with British self-caught specimens, but such a change is in 

 reality quite scientific, being founded upon a study of the Sphingidae 

 of the whole world, and, as the author states in his preface, being 

 due to the fact that the British Hawk-Moths "are really scattered 

 representatives of widely different groups having their central areas 

 often in districts quite outside the limits of the palsearctic area." 

 The details of localities, distribution, habits, etc. are given on the 

 same plan as in previous volumes, which appears to be a good one. 

 The headings of the pages might, however, be made a little more 

 useful, if instead of repeating " British Lepidoptera " on the left- 

 hand pages 250 times the name of the species were to be transferred 

 to this side, and the right-hand heading devoted to " variation," 

 "larva," "localities," as the case required. But this after all is only 

 a matter of convenience from a scientific point of view the work 

 is, as we have said before, the best account, without exception, of the 

 British Lepidoptera ever published. P. H. G. 



