176 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



bridge County Handbooks, issued by the Cambridge University Press, 

 now includes accounts of twenty-five Scottish counties. These volumes, 

 like their predecessors, give well-balanced and comprehensive accounts 

 of the areas in question, and no better guides in short compass could be 

 placed in the hands of the county teachers and scholars or of the casual 

 visitor. Each of the volumes contains, along with chapters on the 

 people, the physical and political geography, the geology, meteorology, 

 antiquities, industries, architecture, etc., a summary of the zoology of its 

 county ; and these descriptions, while necessarily condensed and general, 

 are reasonably complete. In addition to containing two maps in colour, 

 the handbooks are profusely illustrated, and, amongst many, one illus- 

 tration will appeal particularly to the naturalist a tele-photograph of the 

 cranny in the cliffs of Papa Westray, in which lived the last Orkney 

 Great Auk, captured in 1813, and now preserved in the Natural History 

 Museum, South Kensington. 



A Monograph of the British Orthoptera. By W. J. Lucas, B, A. 

 Ray Society, 1920. 264-l-xii pages and 25 Plates. 



Interest in the groups of insects collectively called "British 

 Orthoptera" has undoubtedly suffered through the want of a recognised 

 text-book on the subject. By the publication of the above Monograph, 

 prepared by Mr W. J. Lucas, author of the well-known volume on 

 British Dragon-flies, the Ray Society has in a worthy manner now 

 supplied this want. Mr Lucas has succeeded in producing an excellent 

 up-to-date treatise, which leaves little room for criticism ; and with its 

 help the correct determination of specimens should not be difficult. 



The two aspects of the subject most in need of further investigation 

 are the life-histories (including habits) and the distribution of the 

 various species. Of the thirty-nine Earwigs, Cockroaches, Crickets, 

 and Grasshoppers admitted by Mr Lucas to the British list, only fifteen 

 possibly we have no more are recorded from Scotland, and in every 

 case the distribution is more or less imperfectly known. Here, then, is 

 work for Scottish entomologists. Take, for example, the Common 

 Short-horned Grasshopper, Sfciiohoihrus viridiilus ; in the list of 

 localities given for it only about one-half of the Scottish counties are 

 represented. Reference to the Clyde Handbook, 1901, would, however, 

 have added Ayr and Dumbarton. Confirmation of the alleged 

 occurrence of StenobotJiriis riifipes at Rannoch attributed by Burr to 

 C. W. Dale is much to be desired ; if the species is really an inhabitant 

 of Scotland further captures ought soon to be made. A mistake here 

 and there in the rendering of Scottish place-names catches our eye ; but 

 that is a small matter. 



Besides the above Monograph, the Ray Society has recently issued 

 to its subscribers Vol. IV. (by G. H. Wailes and John Hopkinson) of 

 The British Freshwater Rhizopoda and Hcliozoa, and Vol. I. of The 

 British Charophyia, an important botanical work by James Groves and 

 Canon Bullock-Webster. 



