20 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



BOOK NOTICE. 



Insecta : By Alpheus Hyatt and J. N. Arms. Boston : D. C. Heath & Co. 



This handy volume forms the eighth of the series of the " Guides for 

 Science Teaching '' issued by these well-known publishers of educational 

 works. The series is intended for the use of teachers who wish to give 

 practical instruction to their classes in Natural History. The volume 

 before us forms a marked advance upon those previously issued, inas- 

 much as it consists of 300 pages, with over 200 illustrations, while none 

 of the others were more than a fourth of these dimensions. This great 

 enlargement is due, no doubt, to the growing popularity of entomology 

 as a subject for the teaching of observation in schools, as well as for in- 

 telligent recreation and serious study on the part of individuals. 



The volume before us is an admirable manual for teachers who wish 

 to instruct their pupils in the science of entomology, and will be found 

 most useful also by private students. It is full of admirable diagrams and 

 illustrations, for the most part original, and it takes up for discussion some 

 of the commonest insects in the different orders that can be readily pro- 

 cured by anyone. For instance, the external structure and the internal 

 anatomy of insects are first taught by means of the common Locust (Cal- 

 optenus), which can be taken in quantities anywhere, a May-fly {Ephe- 

 mera), a Dragon-fly, a Cockroach, a May-beetle, the Archippus butterfly, 

 etc., are used to illustrate the different orders. No teacher or student 

 need be at a loss for material with which to follow out the instructions in 

 the book. The whole work is excellent, and we have no doubt that it 

 will be found most valuable in the various agricultural colleges especially, 

 as well as in other educational institutions. 



We may quote the following advice from the opening chapter : — 



" Encourage children to watch living locusts Better a child should 



learn to handle one animal, to see and know its structure and how it lives 

 and moves, than to go through the whole animal kingdom with the best 

 text-book, under the best teacher, aided by the best charts ever made. 

 The former would have learned what real knowledge is, and how to get 

 it, while the latter would have simply learned how to pass at his school 



examination." 



Mailed January 6th. 



