220 THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 



The nomenclature, we are told in the prospectus, follows the rules of 

 the American Ornithologists' Union. As is well known Mr. Scudder's 

 views upon some points with regard to nomenclature are very extreme, 

 and it must be conceded that he has so far few followers. This state of 

 affairs, however, we anticipate will be changed. After many years of 

 close study upon a special subject by so able a student, the writer, at 

 any rate, is prepared to weigh carefully, without previously condemning 

 them, his views as expressed in this his greatest work. 



The illustrations are, as above stated, most profuse, superbly executed, 

 and each is accompanied by copious explanatory text, which will be 

 bound opposite each plate. 



The eight plates in Part I. are as follows : No. i is a beautifully 

 coloured chromo-lithograph of butterflies, showing in most instances both 

 the upper and lower sides. The complete work will contain about twelve 

 of these plates. The second plate, No. 14, is uncoloured, but is exqui- 

 sitely engraved, and by some may possibly be preferred to the last. It 

 shows seventeen figures of butterflies artistically grouped. There are to 

 be five plates similar to this. The next plate, No. 18, comprises eight 

 small maps, showing separately the distribution of the different species 

 treated of in Part I. There will be fifteen of these sets of maps. No. 

 46 shows scales of butterflies, and there will be six of this nature. No. 

 52 gives the heads of butterflies. The work on this plate, drawn by 

 J. H. Emerton, is very beautiful. There are to be eight others like it. 

 No. 67 is the first of three plates showing the micropyles of eggs mag- 

 nified highly. No. 70 is devoted to magnified figures of young larvae just 

 after leaving the eggs, and there will be three others like it. No. 93 is a 

 physical map of New England, prepared specially for this work by John 

 H. Klemroth, under the supervision of the Geographer of the U. S. 

 Survey. These, however, do not by any mean exhaust the styles of plates 

 which will appear, for in subsequent numbers new sorts of subjects will 

 come forward, all of which will be fully illustrated whenever figures can 

 make the text more intelligible. Special articles upon hymenopterous 

 and dipterous parasites are to be prepared by the able specialists, Messrs. 

 L. O. Howard, of Washington, and Dr. Williston. In fact, all the phases 

 of life passed by the insects treated of as well as the important circum- 

 stances connected therewith, will be presented to the reader in the most 

 complete manner possible. There will be about two- thousand figures 

 on ninety-six plates, of which over forty will be coloured. The small in- 

 convenience of not always having all the plates referred to in the text 

 issued at the same time with it, cannot of course possibly be obviated in 

 a systematic work, where everything is treated fully in its proper place 

 under each species, and in which the number of subjects needing illus- 

 tration in each part is greater than can be shown on the quotum of plates 

 for that part. The whole will be issued in a year, in 1 2 parts, each to 

 contain 8 plates and about 150 pages of text. 



James Fletcher. 



