THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 125 



Herr.-Schaff. This is following the supplement of Kirby's Catalogue, 

 but Dr. Staudinger and Mr. Elwes give Var. W^erdandi, Zett., as a variety 

 of Colias Nastes, Boisd. 



The lists of authors and of works quoted are very complete, and the 

 index giving both species and genera, the latter in heavy type, is very 

 satisfactory. Altogether it is a most useful work and really indispensable 

 to every worker on the North American Rhopalocera. It is issued by 

 the American Entomological Society as part of their Transactions, but 

 may be obtained separately from the author for $i.oo. H. H. L. 



Contributions to the Theory of Warning Colours and Mimicry. 

 — By Frank Finn, B.A., F. Z. S., Deputy Superintendent of the Indian 

 Museum, Calcutta. (Reprint from the Journal, Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal.) Vols. LXIV., LXV., LXVL, LXVIL, Part II., 1895-97. 



In this little book of 84 pages, Mr. Finn has brought together a 

 number of separates of his papers, printed in the Journal of the Asiatic 

 Society of Bengal, on this very interesting subject. The experiments 

 were made, largely, with birds, but a lizard, Calotes versicolor, was 

 used in one series, and a frog, Rana iigrina, and a Tree-Shrew, Ttipaia 

 ferrugifiea, in another series ; in this last only a single individual of each 

 species being used. The insects experimented upon were mainly butter- 

 flies, including largely, of course, such as are supposed to be distasteful 

 or warningly or protectively coloured. 



It is obviously impossible to go into the details of the many experi- 

 ments carried out by Mr. Finn, and, therefore, only a synopsis of the 

 results obtained are included here. As regarding the, in some instances, 

 somewhat unsystematic experiments in the case of birds, Mr. Finn ex- 

 plains that " experimenting on this subject was not always his main 

 object in keeping the birds at all," which leads us to suppose that, some- 

 times at least, the results given are what might be termed bi-products, 

 which, instead of detracting from their value, might be regarded as adding 

 thereto, as he would certainly be free from all mental bias, so difficult to 

 avoid in cases where one has laboured long and intensely on a very 

 interesting problem. 



In regard to the lizard, Calotes, he states that " the behaviour of 

 these certainly does not appear to afford support to the belief that the 

 butterflies, at any rate, usually considered nauseous, are distasteful to 

 them." 



