296 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Triphyllus punctatus, Fab., in Scotland. On the 22nd 

 September, while collecting in Cadzow High Park, Hamilton, I 

 came upon colonies of Triphyllus punctatus, ., feeding upon the 

 "beef steak" fungus on the oak trees. I cannot find that this 

 beetle has been taken in Scotland before. The Rev. Canon Fowler 

 gives Scarborough and Dunham Park, Manchester, as the most 

 northerly localities from which it has been recorded. James J. F.-X. 

 King, F.E.S. 



Aradus corticalis, L., in Scotland. Toward the end of 

 June, during July and August, I took a number of larvae, pupje, and 

 imagos of Aradus corticalis, L., on a dead birch tree in the Black 

 Wood, Rannoch. Most of the specimens which I took were 

 walking or resting among the lichens which covered the tree ; very 

 few were seen under the bark. I brought home to Glasgow some 

 larvae, and these developed in due course during September. 

 Neither the species nor genus has been reported from Scotland. 

 Saunders gives New Forest, West Wickham, Kent, and Parley 

 Heath as localities, mentioning it as being rare under bark. 

 James J. F.-X. King, F.E.S. 



BOOK NOTICE. 



The Problem of Pain in Nature. By Charles F. Newall. 

 Paisley: Alexander Gardner, 1917. 131 pages. Illustrated. 

 Price 3s. 6d. net. 



There has always been a tendency in man to judge animal life and 

 expressions from the standpoint of his own experiences and sensations, 

 and in recent years this tendency has been fostered especially by 

 a school of American writers, who have habitually translated animal life- 

 histories into supposed human equivalents. This method may add the 

 interest of the novel, but it leads the reader far from the path of actual 

 truth. Mr Newall's book will be useful in checking this false science, as 

 well as in performing the purpose for which it was written to solve the 

 apparent antagonism between the "tender mercy" which rules the 

 world and the seeming cruelty of nature's own struggles and processes. 

 By examples gathered from many sources, the author shows' that pain in 

 the lower animals is by no means of the same degree as pain in the 

 human race: that, indeed, the phrase "cruelty of nature''' has arisen 

 mainly through a fundamental misunderstanding of the functions and 

 nervous reactions of the lower creatures. The book presents the 

 somewhat technical facts of the matter in a way which cannot fail 

 to appeal to the intelligent reader. J. R. 



