42 [Febi-uary, 



from the staiidpoinl of its groat original exponents, Darwin and Wallace, are drawn 

 froiii the Class Insecla. The Entomologist will thus not fail to find tliroughout 

 these Essays, in which Professor Poulton's incisive and stimulating style is seen at 

 its best, an enormous store of thought-compelling and most interesting facts and 

 suggestions. The well-known Presidential Address to the Entomological Society of 

 London in lOOi, " What is a Species ? " will be read with fresh interest in its new 

 setting; but the chapters that will appeal most strongly to the readers of this 

 Magazine are the three which conclude the series, and are devoted to the subject of 

 Mimicry in Organic Nature, which Professor Pou'ton has made so especially his 

 own. In these Essays, the imposing array of instances in the author's treatment of 

 the question are drawn for the most part from the Order Lepidoptera, and the 

 fullest use is made of the resources of the great collections under his charge at 

 Oxford. The conclusions of the Professor are largely in favour of the replacement, 

 of the interpretation of the Theory of Mimicry originally propounded by Bates in 

 his classical memoir on the subject in the " Transactions of the Linnean Society " 

 for 1862, by that subsequently brought forward by Fritz Miiller. A notable feature 

 of the work is the exhaustive ami most useful " Analytical Index " (pp. 395 — 479). 

 The book is appropriately dedicated to Professor Meldola, and generous recognition 

 is accorded throughout to the workers who have assisted the author in his task ; 

 and in all external respects it is worthy of the traditions of the " Clarendon 

 Press."— J. J. W. 



The Moths of the British Isles : by Richard South, F.E.S. Second 

 Series, comprising the Families Noctiiidx to HepiaJidx. London : Frederick 

 Warne and Co. 1908. 



The second volume of Mr. South's book on our " British Moths " deals witli 

 the second half of the Noctuidx, of which the " Deltoides " of Gruenee, with the 

 addition of the genera Laspeyria ( AventiaJ and I'arascotia (Boletohia) are treated 

 as a sub-family (HypeninsR) ; the Brephidm, Geometridas, Zygxnidx, Cossidas, 

 Sesiidm, and Hepialidie — in all some 370 species, depicted in no fewer than 873 

 coloured figures on 159 plates, which also include a large number of black and white 

 illustrations of the preliminary stages. Most, if not all, of these plates are fully 

 equal in execution to those that have already appeared, though as before the green 

 and white species do not " come out " by direct illustration from the specimens 

 themselves as well as the others. The very striking plate (31; of the " Red Under- 

 wings," the beautifully clear figures of the three Flusias on Plate 26, and of 

 Eucosmia undulata on Plate tiO, and the brilliant reproduction of Mr. Horace 

 Knight's drawings of aberrations of Abraxas grossulariata and sylvata (Plate 104) 

 may be specially commended, as well as the text-figures of Catocala nupta (p. 80) 

 and Selenia illunaria (p. 275) at rest. 



Turning to the letter-prfiss, as Mr. South's treatment of the subject is in all 

 essential respects the same as that followed by him in the preceding volume noticed 

 last year in this Magazine (vol. xliv, p. 64j, we have nothing further to say, except 

 to congratulate him on the successful conclusion of his work, and in having given 

 us one of the most useful and practical treatises on our native " Macro-Lepi- 



