BOOK NOTICES 1 75 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Proceedings of the South London Entomological and 

 Natural History Society, 1918-19. London. Price 4s. 



Judging from the hundred and twenty odd pages which make up its 

 latest Report the members of this Society have, in spite of war con- 

 ditions, shown a remarkable activity and keenness for outdoor science 

 during the session. The meetings and field excursions were held 

 regularly, and the former were characterised by innumerable exhibits 

 of interesting varieties of Lepidoptera and a great variety of insects of 

 all orders too numerous to be detailed here, but too important to be 

 passed over by the student of distribution. The major articles in the 

 volume include the Annual Address of the President (Mr Stanley 

 Edwards) on Economic Entomology, and papers on the Tortricina, 

 the genera Cerostoma and Spilosoina, variation in Epinephele tithonus 

 and Eniaiurga atomaria, the colours of Orthoptera, etc., by various 

 members. 



Manual of Vegetable-Garden Insects. By Cyrus Richard 

 Crosby and Mortimer Demarest Leonard. New York: The 

 MacmiUan Company, 1918. 8vo, pp. 391. Price I2.50. 



This is one of the " Rural Manuals " edited by L. H. Bailey, of 

 which eleven have now appeared. It forms an excellent epitome 

 of the life -histories of the numerous species of insects which attack 

 our growing vegetables, and at the present moment, when so much 

 attention is being paid to the cultivation of small allotments, it will 

 prove an extremely useful and handy guide to the thousands who have 

 recently taken up seriously the task and hobby of raising good food- 

 crops at or near their homes. Although the volume is primarily 

 intended for gardeners and others in North America, yet it may be 

 pointed out that out of the 195 species dealt with no fewer than 49, or 

 nearly 25 per cent., are natives of Europe, having been introduced at 

 various dates into the New World, and hence directly concern the 

 British farmer and allotment-holder. Details are fully but precisely 

 given regarding the distribution, habits, life-history, damage, and 

 methods of control of almost every species. 



The book is well printed, with an abundance of excellent illustra- 

 tions and a comprehensive index. We can cordially recommend it to 

 the notice of our readers and such of their friends as are interested, 

 directly or otherwise, in the all-important question of our vegetable 

 food-supply. 



An ABC OF Common Birds. 



This little book, of sixty-four pages, is published at sixpence by the 

 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and, as it measures less than 

 35X5 in., can easily be carried in the waistcoat pocket. It only claims 

 to "give a short and simple description of the commonest birds of the 

 country from which they may be identified by the non-scientific person, 



