REVIEWS. 63 



butterfly rejoices in twenty names from twenty different naturalists, with 

 all impartiality they are set down in order, and no apparent preference is 

 given to any. The change of the generic name, from time to time, is 

 notice enough that we have entered on another genus; why the pale 

 clouded yellow should be called " Colias," and the next species, the black- 

 veined white, " Pieris," why they may not be both Colias, or both Pieris, 

 and what is the difference between Pieris and Colias, we are not informed. 

 The only important fact is, that both are handsome butterflies, and may be 

 found at such and such times, and in such and such places if one is lucky 

 enough to find them. This principle, which is acted on throughout, is 

 carried, we think, rather too far, even where scientific information is not 

 the primary object. It reduces the study to the level of a mere .plaything, 

 which is scarcely fair in these days, when it is no longer considered a mark 

 of childishness to be an entomologist. The dignity of the title, " A His- 

 tory of British Butterflies," is hardly sustained in the body of the work, 

 which is little more than portraits of eminent and ordinary British butter- 

 flies, and references to their residences sylvan, rural, or marine. Surely, 

 Mr. Morris might have found room for one or two of the leading charac- 

 teristics of each family, if not of each genus ; it would not have made the 

 book less interesting, and it would have rendered it far more practically 

 useful. 



We would, nevertheless, by no means, undervalue what we have got. 

 The copious list of localities appended to the several species is very va- 

 luable, and it would be well if the localities in which rare species have 

 been captured were more carefully collected, and more widely published ; 

 not merely because it would direct entomologists where to look for them, 

 but because much curious information might be elicited as to the times, 

 situations, variations, and peculiarities of their appearance, disappearance, 

 or recurrence, which at present seem full of anomalies and perplexities, but 

 might not improbably be in time reduced to something more like order and 

 system. Other peculiarities, relating to the more abundant species, might 

 also be discovered, if note were taken of the localities in which they are 

 not to be found, which may be as interesting, in a scientific point of view, 

 as the record of places where others are to be met with. For this reason 

 we are glad of the information that, in the neighbourhood of Falmouth, 

 some of our commonest butterflies are scarce e.g., the Hipparchia hyper- 

 anthus, Hipparchia pamphilus, and Vanessa atalanta. 



The careful record of the times of appearing of the species is also ad- 

 vantageous, though, of course, its value depends on its rigid accuracy 

 when the period is predicted to a day or two. The variations in the 



