394 NATURAL SCIENCE Nov., 



yearly volume would bring about a state of affairs too terrible to 

 contemplate even in imagination ; it is our business, therefore, to be 

 exceedingly thankful to the editor and his staff of contributors for the 

 great pains which they have taken in registering the immense amount 

 of zoological work of the past year, and to the Zoological Society for 

 bearing the expense of this necessarily costly publication. These 

 grateful feelings on our part leave scarcely any wish to criticise ; but 

 as a matter of precedent it is a very easy task to criticise the 

 Zoological Record ; it has been laid down in all criticisms of past 

 volumes which we have read, that the way to deal with this work is 

 to search diligently for misprints; to ignore the vast amount of labour 

 expended upon its production, and to dwell particularly upon the defects 

 of newly-enrolled members of the staff of recorders. We, personally, 

 happen to be of an extremely conservative disposition, and are, there- 

 fore, intense respecters of precedent ; in spite, however, of natural 

 inclination, stimulated by such misprints as " Aelosoma" for 

 " Aeolosoma," flitviventvis for flaviventris, Naidonina for Naidium, etc., 

 we feel very strongly that the only proper way to criticise the 

 Zoological Record is to point out, if it can be done, that the record 

 is incomplete. So far as we have tested the present volume this is 

 not the case ; it appears, however, that the last volume was so to 

 some extent, for there are a few references to papers published in 1891, 

 which should, of course, have been included in that volume. But — 

 particularly in this kind of work — better late than never ! One of 

 the more useful features of the Zoological Record is the general section 

 with which it commences ; this improvement was introduced by the 

 late editor, and we are glad to notice that the present editor has not 

 dispensed with a very important part of the volume. 



F. E 



Our Household Insects. An Account of the Insect-Pests found in Dwelling- 

 houses. By Edward A. Butler, B.A., B.Sc. Svo. Pp. 344, 7 plates and 113 

 figures. London : Longmans, Green & Co., 1S93. Price 6s. 



We can strongly recommend this book, whose chapters originally 

 appeared as articles in the pages of Knowledge. The various species 

 of insects which have, more or less, established themselves as com- 

 panions of man are described in systematic order. The structure, 

 habits, and life-history of each insect are set forth in a manner at once 

 accurate and popular ; so that the reader who is attracted to the book 

 will learn what material for interesting study may be found in the 

 bodies- of the humble lodgers in his dwelling. The affinities of the 

 household insects with their out-of-door relations are indicated, and a 

 very fair notion of the comparative morphology of the leading insect- 

 types may be obtained by the careful student. The insects described 

 include the wood-boring, skin-eating, and meal-worm beetles, ants, 

 wasps, clothes-moths, cockroach, cricket, earwig, flies, gnats, flea, 

 bug, book-lice, silver-fish, and skin-lice. The figures of the insects 

 and their anatomy are good, and the plates are reproductions of 

 micro-photographs prepared for lantern slides. 



While the book is primarily intended as a popular work, we do 

 not think the author will be disappointed of the hope expressed in 

 the preface that the serious student of entomology will find it useful. 

 The only objection is likely to be raised by the householder, who will 

 perhaps complain that while the author describes with enthusiasm 

 the jaws of the creatures and the depredations they commit on 



