272 Bibliographical Notices. 



Margarita), to which this genus appears to be allied ; although in 

 Scissurella it is not so multispiral. The slit in adult specimens ends 

 in a foramen, and is not continued to the edge of the shell or aperture, 

 as was remarked by the late Mr. G. B. Sowerby, as well as by Philippi, 

 although D'Orbigny (the founder of the genus) did not notice this 

 peculiarity. Mr. Woodward (who called my attention to the cir- 

 cumstance) is of opinion that the fossil genus Trochotoma bears a 

 close relation to Scissurella. In the Northern Seas, the species 

 appear to inhabit deep water ; but in the Mediterranean they are 

 littoral. 



Trochus zonatus. — It seems that this name had been preoccupied 

 by Mr. Wood for another species, and I therefore propose to change 

 my specific name to Skeneoides. 



Jeffreysia opalina. — I have found a full-grown and characteristic 

 example in some shell-sand sifted from seaweed which I collected at 

 Palmaria ; thus adding another British species to my list. 



68 Montagu Square, 22nd Feb. 1856. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Natural History of the Tineina. By H. T. Stainton, 

 assisted by Prof. Zeller and J. W. Douglas. Vol. 1. London. 

 Van Voorst. Svo. 1855. 



In the days of our great-grandfathers, and for many years later, 

 the naturalist was regarded, even by men of cultivated minds, with a 

 singular mixture of pity and contempt, as something very little better 

 than a harmless madman. Thus the renowned Bickerstaff, in his 

 * Tatler,' indulges in many curious pleasantries at the expense of the 

 naturalists of his day — virtuosos, as he calls them ; now giving a 

 ludicrous account of his visit to the "ingenious" Don Saltero, in his 

 coifee-house and barber's shop at Chelsea ; now administering a sly 

 poke to the Royal Society ; and, lastly, furnishing us with the will 

 of a virtuoso, who died in consequence of his exertions in pursuit of 

 a rare butterfly. Forming a collection of insects seems to have been 

 regarded in those days as one of the most contemptible of all em- 

 ployments ; and, in fact, the smaller the object studied, the greater 

 was the contempt entertained for the student. Nowadays, however, 

 although there may still be a tendency to worship size and strength 

 in the higher animals, the fact, that amongst the agents employed 

 by Nature none are more active and powerful than those little crea- 

 tures whose operations are carried on in secret, and whose minute- 

 ness often screens their very existence from the eye of the careless 

 observer, long since admitted by philosophical naturalists, is gradually 

 dawning upon the popular mind. 



Nevertheless entomology appears never to have recovered entirely 

 from the ill-repute in which it was formerly held ; and this is per- 

 haps mainly to be attributed to the fact, that so many of its votaries 



