Risso. Histoire Naturelle de V Europe Meridionale. 475 



with an industry and taste almost equal to that of the intelligent 

 little insect which forms its subject. He enters with sufficient 

 detail into the natural his<orv and management of Bees, and, 

 while treating of their organisation and instinct, diverges to more 

 general views as connecte-d with the whole of the class to which 

 they belong. The pleasing manner in which the facts are narra- 

 ted, and the frequent illustrations introduced by means of neatly- 

 executed wood-cuts, render it altogether a very attractive pro- 

 duction. Calculated at once to interest and inform, it will 

 doubtless become extensively popular, especially among the more 

 respectable class of Apiarians. 1 



Histoire Naturelle des principales Productions de P Europe Meri^ 

 dionale, et pai^ticuUerement de celles des Environs de Nice et 

 des Jlpes Mariiimes ; Far A. Risso, Ancien Professeur^ Sfc, 

 Svo. Tomes i. — iv. Jvec des Planches. Paris^ 1826. 



A WORK of high value, as the production of an able and practi- 

 cal naturalist on the objects which immediately surround him, and 

 to which his attention has been especially directed, throughout a 

 long series of years. Its contents embrace the whole of the de- 

 partments of Natural History as connected with the district in 

 which the authour resides, but our notice will of course be direct- 

 ed to its Zoological portions alone. These occupy a consider- 

 able share of the volumes, and are well adapted to maintain for 

 M. Risso the character which he has acquired by his previous 

 works, that of an acute and intelligent observer. 



In the first volume Zoological subjects are only incidentally 

 introduced, in the Geological Sketch of the environs of Nice, 

 which occupies nearly one half of its pages : but the contents of 

 the fourth volume are entirely and purely Zoological. They con- 

 sist of a sketch of the natural history of the Mollusca and Shells of 

 the district of Nice, and of a series of observations on different 

 Jinnelida of the Maritime Alps. In the former, including the 

 Cirrhipeda and the Tunicata, 1085 species are characterized and 



