314 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



British Butterflies; by J. ^V. Tutt, F. E. S. London : George Gill & 

 Sons, 1896. Pp. 469. (Price, 5?.) 



It is only a few months since we spoke in terms of commendation of 

 Mr. Tutt's Manual of the British Moths, and now we have before us an 

 even better work on the butterflies by the same industrious author. 

 About one-fourth of the book is taken up with the general subject, pre- 

 senting a series of chapters on the four life-stages of butterflies, their 

 variation and its causes, hibernation and aestivation, classification, collect- 

 ing, and arranging and preserving specimens, and the inflation of larvae. 

 These are written in the author's pleasant, easy style, with which his 

 previous works have made us familiar, and convey much information of 

 interest to butterfly-hunters anywhere. We are glad to observe that he 

 insists very strongly upon the importance of labelling specimens with the 

 place and date of capture ; though the English mode of using short pins 

 and setting the specimens low down makes this a matter of difiiculty. 



The descriptive portion of the work is excellent and much more 

 complete than that of any manual of British butterflies that we have met 

 with. In the case of each species there are given the English and scien- 

 tific names, reference to the plate where it is figured, synonymy and 

 bibliography, a concise description of the imago, a paragraph on " varia- 

 tion " in which are mentioned any known aberrations, forms or varieties, 

 as well as sexual distinctions, descriptions of the egg, larva, pupa, notes on 

 the time of appearance, habitat, and geographical distribution. Thus it 

 will he seen that proper regard is paid to the whole life-history of the 

 insect, and that the author does not confine his attention to the imago 

 alone. The plates (uncoloured) on which each species is depicted are 

 admirable, and should enable any collector to identify his specimens with- 

 out difficulty ; there are also a considerable number of wood cuts 

 throughout the text. 



In the arrangement of species the author begins with the " lowest " 

 — the Skippers, Hesperidae — and proceeds upwards to the Satyridas, 

 among which he strangely places " the Purple Emperor," Apatura iris. 

 His classification, a thorny subject which we do not propose to discuss 

 here, may thus be considered fully " up to date." 



To our readers in the British Isles, and to those who have collections 

 of British butterflies, we heartily commend this excellent Manual. We 

 only hope that it may not be very long before we have some handbook 

 equally good dealing with the butterflies of Canada. C. J. S. B. 



Mailed December loth, 1S96, 



