REVIEWS. 105 



very discrepant and boldly original views which Lepelletier St. Fargeau 

 has more lately proposed appear to have gained few converts. But still 

 after that, much remained, which could hardly be accomplished by a work 

 produced at a time when war had almost wholly interrupted the communica- 

 tions with the Continent, then, at the best, and for long after, tardy and pre- 

 carious in matters of literature produced, too, from materials nearly limited 

 to his private collections and observations, made in the leisure hours of a life 

 consecrated then, as it was afterwards, for a period exceeding the average 

 duration of human life, to the duties of the ministry in a country parish. 

 Kirby himself was aware of many imperfections in his own work. Of the 

 last of his groups he has remarked " I know no family of which it is more 

 difficult to distinguish the species than the present, for there is little differ- 

 ence in the form of the Bombinatrices, and the hue of their bodies, at least 

 of all our English ones, is the same, so that the describer must rely almost 

 solely upon the colour of their hirsuties for his characters, and this is so 

 subject to vary, even in the same individual in different periods of its 

 existence, that it is not safe to depend upon it, but under particular 

 restrictions. An insect recently disclosed, in this respect appears a different 

 species from the same where it has long been exposed to wind and 

 weather." And again " But this is not all the difficulty with which the 

 describer has to struggle ; the males, in general, resemble the females 

 sufficiently to be known as such, but there are several so unlike 

 them, as to be easily mistaken for different species ; and I am by 

 no means certain that I have not, in more instances than one, described 

 the sexes under different names ; till all can be traced to their nidi this is 

 not easy to be avoided."* Such instances as are here anticipated have 

 afforded scope accordingly for correction by further observation. Large 

 additions, too, have accrued to the list of indigenous species through the 

 industry of collectors, during the fifty years, and upwards, that have passed 

 since Kirby wrote. And while collections have increased and multiplied 

 at home, the growing facilities of communication with the Continent, and 

 the interchange by traffic of scientific publications, have tended to dis- 

 seminate the literature of the science, and to harmonize the nomenclature. 

 Mr. Smith has availed himself with judgment and ability of these advan- 

 tages, for the production of a volume which may be considered a necessary 

 supplement to those of Kirby. It might seem, at first sight, that little 

 had been added, in respect of numbers, since the commencement of this 

 century; two hundred and twenty-one species having been given by 



* Monographia Apum Anglite I. 207, 208. 



