1896. SOME NEW BOOKS. 203 



section the branches of the median nervure are forked, while in the 

 latter (more primitive) group the lower branch arises from the cell. 

 (It is a pity that writers on moth-neuration do not agree on nomen- 

 clature ; in the system used by Mr. Grote the numbers of the nervures 

 are reckoned from the costa, while Messrs. Hampson and Meyrick 

 begin to count from the inner margin.) Mr. Grote considers the 

 radial nervure and its branches of the highest structural importance, 

 and points out that the great development of these and the con- 

 sequent immense spread of the forewings in the Attacina is correlated 

 with a reduction of the body parts and a high complexity in the 

 antennae. He considers, therefore, the Attacina to be the highest 

 of the saturniids, and supports this view by their method of suspend- 

 ing the cocoon. While the other saturniids fasten their cocoons 

 directly to stems or branches, or spin simply among leaves, the 

 .attacines use a leaf which they attach to the branch by an artificial 

 stem of silk. This Mr. Grote believes to be a provision to guard 

 against the falling of the leaf with its contained cocoon to the ground 

 when the natural stem gives way. The wing-expanse of these insects 

 is so great that they cannot rise from the ground, and by this mode of 

 fastening the cocoon it is assured that the moths shall emerge in the 

 upper air. 



The value of Mr. Grote's work is materially increased by the very 

 beautiful reproductions of excellent photographs of cocoons and living 

 moths in their natural positions.- Geo. H. Carpenter. 



Birds, Bird-Song, and Birds' Eggs. 



A Concise Handbook of British Birds. By H. Kirke Swann. Crown 8vo. 

 Pp. vi., 210. London : John Wheldon & Co., 1896. Price 3s. 6d. 



The Evolution of Bird-song. By Charles A. Witchell. 8vo, cloth. Pp. x., 

 253. London : A. & C. Black, 1889. Price 5s. 



British Birds, their Nests and Eggs. By various well-known authors. Illus- 

 trated by F. W. Frohawk. Part L Ry. 4to. Pp. 48. London : Horace 

 Marshall & Son, 1896. Price 2S. per monthly part. 



Four Common Birds of the Farm and Garden. By S. D. Judd. The Meadow 

 Lark and Baltimore Oriole. By F. E. L. Beal. Pp. 405-430 (Year- 

 book for 1895). U.S. Dept. Agriculture, Washington, 1S95. 



Although there is nothing to be desired in a handbook of British 

 birds which we do not find in Howard Saunders' well-known 

 ■" Manual " (not to speak of the works of Seebohm and others), it must 

 be confessed that the question of bulk is sometimes a consideration to 

 travelling naturalists. Saunders' book is a wonderful epitome of 

 facts ; but it takes up a whole corner in a portmanteau, and is too 

 bulky to be carried in a man's pocket on a field-day. The same 

 remark applies to most other books. Mr. Swann has sought to supply 

 a tiny text-book, which should contain a description of the plumage 

 of most British birds and their eggs, and which can at the same time 

 be slipped into a corner of a bag, or knapsack, without inconvenience. 

 He has asked too much, perhaps, when he claims that his modest 

 booklet " has had as yet no rivals " ; for Irby's " Check-list of British 

 Birds" conveys a considerable amount of information, as do some other 

 works of the same kind. Mr. Swann would have been wiser to 

 describe his book as an annotated list of British birds ; for this is 

 precisely what it is. He does nominally include the majority of 

 British birds, but not all. It is not easy to divine why no mention is 

 made of the collared petrel (CEstrelata torquata), figured in the Ibis 



