REVIEWS 211 



advantage. The work is an excellent one, and we wish it the 

 success which it merits. A. D. 



The Lepidoptera of the British Islands. By Charles G. 

 Barrett, F.E.S. (London: L. Reeve and Co., 1892.) 



Mr. C. G. Barrett's new work on " The Lepidoptera of the British 

 Islands," two numbers of which have appeared, is very disappointing. 

 The author has missed a magnificent opportunity of producing a 

 much-needed standard work on the subject. The letterpress is far 

 behind the scientific spirit of the age. With regard to the generic 

 names, he omits in most cases to give any authority for their use; while 

 in regard to the specific names he contents himself with stating the 

 name of the authority, without giving any reference to the original 

 description. In the text also he often refers to published papers 

 without mentioning references. For this there can be no excuse, 

 as he might, without trouble, have found exact references given in 

 many of the older English works. The general arrangement of the 

 work also leaves much to be desired. There are no headings to 

 the paragraphs to indicate their nature, so that if any special piece of 

 information be sought it becomes necessary to read the whole 

 article. A very interesting subject that Mr. Barrett has only just 

 touched upon is the distribution of species in the Palaearctic area, 

 which, if properly detailed, would have been of the greatest service. 

 The author seems only to aim at producing a book for the mere 

 collector, and is very careful to give all the aberrations of colour 

 and marking, and the description of hermaphrodite specimens in 

 those collections he has had access to, calling them all varieties, 

 which is a misapplication of the term. They may be of deep 

 interest to collectors, but are of very little scientific value. The 

 plates are decidedly the best part of the work, though far from per- 

 fection. The imagines of plates 3 and 7 are especially good ; on 

 the other hand, plates 4 and 8 are as bad as can be. Plates 1, 2, 5, 

 and 6, can only be said to be fairly good. With regard to the 

 figures of larvae and pupae, they seem to have been treated as odds 

 and ends, and are as a rule very poor. It seems a pity that the 

 author did not model his work on such treatises as those of Trimen 

 or Edwards, which leave little to be desired. It is greatly to be 

 hoped that Mr. Barrett may see his way to remedy in the succeeding 

 numbers some of the more glaring defects exhibited by the first two. 



E. W. C. 



The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District: With Records 

 of the Occurrences of the Rarer Species throughout the South-east of 

 Scotland generally. By William Evans, I.R.S.K. (Edinburgh: 

 MT'arlane and Erskine. 1S92.) Pp. [23. 



We are much pleased to find that Mr. Evans has issued his most 

 excellent account of the Mammalia of the Edinburgh District in a 

 separate and enlarged form. In this important contribution to 



