200 THE entomologist's record. 



special weakness is grass. Miss Ormerod tells us that in 1884 these 

 caterpillars devastated an area of about ten miles in extent of the 

 mountainous parts of Glamorganshire, and next year spread over a 

 tract of about seven by five miles in Selkirkshire. The district at 

 present infested is that in which the voles have been doing so much 

 damage ; only the mischief done by the caterpillars is so great that the 

 graziers are looking back almost with affection to the more merciful 

 plague of mice. It is possible that the drenching rains of the past 

 week may check the increase of the larv^. Tor it is noticed that a 

 sudden wetting or raj^id change in the state of their food induces 

 violent purging, which soon reduces the grub to a mere empty skin." 



Iractical hints. 



I want to recommend the use of methylated spirit instead of rum 

 for mixing with the sugar ; the attracting power seems to be greatly 

 increased thereby. —(Rev.) C. R. N. Burrows, Rainham. July 23rd!, 

 1894. 



Flies always pester me to infuriation. I have found that a liberal 

 sprinkling of Eucalyptus oil on the coat collar and face deters them 

 from annoying me. — F. J. Buckell, M.B. 



.^loTICES AND REVIEWS. 



Woodside, Burnside, HiUside and Marsh, by J. W. Tutt, F.E.S. — In 

 his new volume Mr. Tutt gives us a second series of sympathetic pic- 

 tures of rustic scenery, of birds, flowers, and insects ; and these sketches 

 are even more idyllic, and perhaps also more matured, tlian tliose which 

 were presented to us in Random Recollections of Woodland, Fen and Hill. 

 An eminent Canadian has recently urged the desirability, in this age of 

 science, of the cultivation of the humanities. Such a pleasant blending 

 of these two — surely not absolutely oj^posing elements — as Mr. Tutt's 

 work displays, is unfortunately, however, rarely met with. We open a 

 book full of profound learning : it appals and reiiels us by its techni- 

 calities, its dry and frigid style. We pick uj) a volume written by a 

 master of charming language, and perha2:)s find therein much that will 

 scarcely stand the test of close and sober reasoning. Here, however, we 

 have a work which, if not of the highest literary merit, is at least clearly 

 and intelligently written, and the scientific information contained in 

 whose pages has been compiled in the full light of the latest discoveries 

 and speculations. It is eminently a book which urges us to throw off the 

 " old Adam " of the collector, and to attempt to penetrate farther and 

 yet farther still into the arcana natwne. The author carries us in spirit 

 through some of the scenes in which Mr. Pickwick and his satellites 

 displayed their many-sided abilities. The first chapter, giving a glimpse 

 of the Kentish Woods with their thickets and flower-bestrewn clear- 

 ings, introduces us to the famous Inn at Cobham with its memories of 

 Dickens, and we almost sight in passing the home of the great novelist 

 at Gads Hill. The third describes the chalk hills and downs in the 



