16 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST, 



are the principal topics treated in the non-descriptive matter, and this is 

 reasonably full for such a work, and adds very decidedly to our knowledge. 

 Undoubtedly when the insects come to be reared, many of the nominal 

 species will be found to belong together, for De Niceville has already dis- 

 covered the probable existence of seasonal dimorphism in the Bombay 

 Butterflies, " there being in several species an ocellated form which occurs 

 only in the rains, the cold and dry seasoned being non-ocellated." 



We regret, however, to say that the work adds practically nothing to 

 our knowledge of the earlier stages. This will surely follow the publica- 

 tion of this first and only handbook to the Butterflies of England's great 

 eastern empire, for, as the authors point out, such a work as the present 

 is a sine qua non to an attempt at that co-operation through which alone 

 any great advance can be made toward a general knowledge, either of the 

 elements of the fauna or of the life-histories of its prevailing types. When 

 we remember, however, that our knowledge of the transformations of 

 eastern Butterflies has hardly advanced in fifty years as much as it ad- 

 vanced at a bound a half century ago by the labors of Horsfield alone, we 

 are glad to be assured that when this present preliminary task is done, 

 Mr. de Nice'ville will direct his energies and the grand opportunities his 

 position at the Indian Museum afford him to this more telling work. We 

 wish him then all speed in the completion of the present task. 



One word about the illustrations, which are wonderfully good. They 

 are drawn by two native artists, Grish Chunder Chuckerbutty and Behari 

 Lall Dass — they must be natives — and mostly reproduced by "autotype " 

 in London ; they are therefore monochromatic, but the results are far 

 superior to anything we have seen in which photography has borne a part. 

 The half tones are wonderfully caught, and their closest examination 

 reveals the unusually skillful and delicate touch of the artist. There are. 

 twenty-six plates in the two volumes, including one good chromo-litho- 

 graph, a plate of structural details, and one of caterpillars and chrysalids, 

 besides a dozen or more wood cuts in the text. 



The book will be completed in four or five octavo volumes of fine 

 type, and it is expected within three years. Each of the volumes com- 

 pleted costs 14 rupees (about 25 shillings), and it is hoped that 60 rupees 

 will cover the entire cost. Subscriptions can be sent to B. Quaritch, 15 

 Picadilly, London, Eng. 



S. H. SCUDDER. 



