SHERBORN S "TVDEX AXIMALTUM." 13 



Sherborn's "Index Animaliuni." * 



By LOUIS B. TROUT, P'.E.S. 

 The advent of the first part of this monnraental work of reference, 

 so long awaited by serioui? workers in all branches of zoology, certainly 

 merits some notice in Tlie KntomoloiiiM's Hcconl. When readers are 

 reminded that the undertaking was commenced on July 1st, 1890, and 

 that even after deducting the time lost through the author's unfe:)rtunate 

 breakdown in health, its completion has taken eight yeai's' solid work, 

 they will, perhaps, form some conception of the magnitude of the task 

 which has been set Mr. Sherborn, and which has been so admirably 

 accomplished by him. But this conception becomes more definite 

 when one looks through the voluminous " Bibliography " (pp. xi-lvi) of 

 the " books referred to in the compilation of this index," and remem- 

 bers that the " referring," has, in many cases, involved a laborious 

 fixing, by research in contemporary literature, etc., of the date of every 

 page, and still more when one glances through the 1195 closely-printed 

 pages of the index itself. Most heartily do we thank Mr. Sherborn for 

 the above-mentioned " Bibliography"!; had there been nothing else con- 

 tained within the covers of his book we should still have felt that he 

 had not laboured in vain, especially as it indicates which works contain 

 " no specific names," " no new species," " no systematic zoology," &c. 

 Mr. Sherborn simply calls it a " rough list of books," and we suppose 

 this refers to the abbreviated titles by which they are catalogued, as 

 well as to the absence of bibliographical minutiae (dates of intermediate 

 volumes, numbers of pages, &c.). Certainly some of the titles are a 

 good deal abbreviated, and one would not readily recognise what was 

 the scope, for instance, of " Sierstorpff, K.H., Insektenarten," which is 

 really (as its full title shows) a work on insects injurious to pine. 

 That there should be one or two slips in this part of the work, and 

 consequent omissions in the "Index" itself, is no doubt almost inevit- 

 able where the matter which had to be dealt with was of such huge 

 proportions. We think Mr. Sherborn is in error in saying that 

 Gladbach's Bcsrhridbiinn Eiirnpaisclu'r SclunettcrUniic contains "no new 

 species" ; Pltalaena tinea chri/scuit/icini was erected on p. 82 of this book 

 (1777) not (first) in Kuehn's Kilrzc Anlciinmj of 1788. By the way, 

 should not all the names brought forward in Gladbach's Namen and 

 Preiss Verzeichniss be dated 1778 (cfr., Stett. Ent. Zelt., xvi., p. 94) 

 instead of 1788, when they were simply reprinted by Kuehn '? Certainly 

 they were in circulation before 1783, «.//., in Lang's Verzeichnixs of 

 1782. And again, are they " nomina nuda " and not rather valid 

 names erected on Rosel's and Kleemann's species '? But the only 

 serious omission which we have noticed — involving a really large 

 number of names in the lepidoptera — results from our author's having 

 unaccountably accused Goeze, in his FJnt(imolo;/isrhe lieijtriiiie, of being 



* " Index Animaliura, sive index nominum quae ab. a.d. mdcclviii, generibus 

 et speciebus animalium imposita sunt : soeietatibus eruditorum adiuvantibus a 

 Carolo Davies Sherborn confectus. Sectio prima a kalendis Januariis, jidcclviii. 

 usque ad finem Decembris, mdccc." Cantabrigiae, e typographic academico, 

 MDCcccii, 8°, lix. + 1195 pp. 



+ Incidentally, too, Mr. Sherborn has earned the gratitude of all serious 

 students by his unflagging energy in hunting up rare books, purchasing where 

 necessary, and getting them placed in accessible libraries for reference by future 

 workers. 



