o'lO tHE KNTOMOLOCtIST*S RECORP, 



British Lepidoptera.^' 



By W. BATESON, M.A., F.E.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



The third volume of Mr. J. W. Tutt's British Lcpidnptera is a 

 really important book. It has been compiled on the same plan as the 

 preceding volumes, though partly on account of the particular genera 

 treated, but more from the catholic taste with which the author has 

 brought together his materials, the present work is even more useful 

 to the scientific entomologist than vols, i and ii. To the collector and 

 systematist Mr. Tutt's books are without doubt of high value. The 

 analysis of specific and varietal characters is evidently made with 

 extreme care, but, to the general naturalist, and especially to the 

 student of evolution, the book has a direct and uncommon importance. 



Nothing of this kind has been attempted in any language hitherto. 

 Mr. Tutt, though modestly entitling his work A Natural Histuri/ of 

 British Li'jyiduiitcra, has gone much further afield than such a title 

 would lead a reader to expect. For example, in treating Ladocanipa 

 (juercfls we are provided not merely with a discussion of the British 

 races, but an abstract is given of all that has been observed in the 

 field or discovered by experimental breeding regarding the foreign 

 forms and the laws which govern their heredity and variation. Again, 

 in connection with the natural history of Satiirnia paro)tia, Mr. Tutt 

 introduces a full account of Standfuss' important experiments in 

 crossing the Continental species. Many similar examples might be 

 given illustrating the broad scope of the work. 



It may well be imagined that in dealing thus liberally with species 

 such as (juercLis, jiotatoria, paronia, tiliae, jmpitli, and nrellata, all forms 

 famous in the literature of variation and hybridisation, a very fine 

 body of evidence has been amassed. To take the subject of gynan- 

 dromorphism alone, it is scarcely too much to say that the raw material 

 for a treatise is scattered through Mr. Tutt's pages. 



The abstracting and condensation of the evidence, so far as it can 

 be judged by one who is not a professed entomologist, has been most 

 carefully done, and the reader may feel confidence that, though the 

 points are concisely put, exaggeration has been consistently avoided. 

 Alto'>ether, such a work is one to be thankful for, and there can be no 

 doubt that such a publication will stimulate the younger generation of 

 students to step from the narrow track of mere collecting and to 

 wander oft" into the more fertile fields of experiment and observation 

 of living forms. 



When so much has been done for us criticism is hardly in place, 

 yet a reviewer can scarcely avoid repeating a word of regret that the 

 author has not leisure to digest his materials rather more completely. 

 The trained student knows what to expect under the head of querciis, 

 poptdi, and the like. He will easily find his way to the matter he is 

 seekino-, but even a professed naturalist, who had not a fairly clear idea 

 beforehand of the class of tact each species was likely to provide, 

 mio-ht find a good deal of difficulty in using the book. The kind of 

 oro-anised arrangement called tor is, unhappily, about the most exacting 

 task an author can set himself, and many a fastidious writer has never 



* A Naturnl IlUtory of the British Lepiduptera, by J. W. Tutt, F.E.S., 

 vol. iii. London : Swan Sonnenschein and Co., Paternoster Sf|iiiire, F.C, 

 Price, £1 not 



