296 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



BOOK NOTICES. 



Outdoor Studies : a Reading Book of Nature Study. — By James G. 

 Needham; i Vol., pp. 90. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago: Ameri- 

 can Book Company. 



These are a series of stories of animal life, written in a charmingly 

 interesting way, and designed to lead on a youthful reader to observe for 

 himself the wonders of nature that are everywhere open to his view. It 

 begins with an account of the common wild snapdragon, or " butter and 

 eggs," and tells how the peculiar structure of the flower is designed for 

 the visits of the bumblebees who come for the nectar and carry off the 

 pollen as well. The next chapters are on Chipmunks; Galls and their 

 makers ; the Golden-rod and its visitors and tenants ; Crows and their 

 doings ; Dragon-flies, which, as our readers may remember, have been 

 special objects of the author's studies ; Eye-spots on insects which aid in 

 the protection of their owners ; and Ant-lions. Any boy or girl who 

 takes up the book and dives a little way into its pages will surely read 

 on with delight, and when the little volume is closed, be anxious to sally 

 forth and see if he (or she) cannot find some similar marvels of nature 

 and learn their meaning while admifing their beauty. 



The book is one of a series designed for the use of school children 

 who are about to enter the high schools. It is beautifully illustrated 

 with about ninety wood-cuts, the work of Mrs. Needham, the author's 

 wife, and is provided with an index and a list of the scientific names of 

 the animals and plants referred to in the text. 



Lepidoptera, Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres, indigenous and exotic. 

 Supplement No. i. By Herman Strecker. (Printed for the author), 

 Reading, Pa., 189S. 12 pp., 410. Price, 25 cents. 



It is now twenty-one years since Mr. Strecker published the last 

 number of the above-named work ; it was, therefore, an agreeable surprise 

 to receive the first part of a new issue with the old familiar title page. 

 This "Supplement No. i " contains descriptions of fifty-one species of 

 Heterocera, which have all, with one exception — a species from Brazil — 

 been taken in North America ; two-thirds of them are described from 

 single examples. The author states in his preface that he found, on re- 

 arranging his collection of Noctuidae, that he had a number of specimens 

 which he was unable to identify, •' either through the bibliography, or the 

 examination of other collections, or by the aid of specialists," and con- 

 sequently he took the matter in his own hands and issued this instalment 

 of new descriptions. He explains also the difficulties that he met with in 

 his endeavor to give figures of the species thus described, and how he 

 was compelled to do without them. We certainly miss them very much, 

 but as we are never likely to possess duplicates of anything that is unique 

 in Mr. Strecker's collection, the want of them is not so serious. Under 

 these circumstances it seems a pity that Mr. Strecker had not sent his 

 descriptions to some entomological journal, such as the Transactions Am. 

 Ent. Society, rather than to have published them in this form himself. 



Mailed November ist, 1898. 



