NOTICES AND REVIEWS. 203 



" How this slave-making instinct originated is doubtful. It is well 

 known that ants which are not slave-makers will carry off pupaj of 

 other s^Decies, to be used for food. If these pupte hatched before they 

 w^ere requii-ed for that purpose, they would naturally do such work as 

 they would have done in their own nest, and their presence proving 

 useful to those in whose nests they found themselves, the collection of 

 pupai would probably be persevered in, and in time such collection may 

 have become the sole aim of certain species, their household duties in 

 the same manner becoming gradually and at last entirely delegated to 

 their prisoners." 



And now, when the evening is fast drawing on, and whilst the air ' 

 is perfumed with the sweet scent of the " Wood-mother," as the 

 Spaniards poetically term the honeysuckle, we j^art company with our 

 Mentor. He leads us out of the marsh and leaves us beneath a haw- 

 thorn bush, looking out over the weird flat country, and we are alone 

 with Nature — alone, but with a feeling of gladness and peace, for are we 

 not in the presence of the Great Mother whose manifold and wondrous 

 works he has been endeavouring to make us more rightly and more 

 clearly understand. We have only lightly skimmed this charming 

 book, whose attractiveness is greatly heightened by copious illustrations ; 

 it is a volume which will and must be read by every reasoning, right- 

 thinking entomologist. — A. F. Bayne. 



Abstract of Proceedings of the South London Entomological and Natural 

 History Society, for the Years 1S92 and 1S93. — We are pleased to ac- 

 knowledge the receipt of this volume, and to bear witness to the libe- 

 rality of some of the members of the Society, which enables the Council 

 to publish such an interesting volume. There are at least two jDapers 

 within its covers which would raise it far above the level of the common- 

 place, even if there were no other matter of interest on its pages. These 

 are the Presidential addresses delivered in 1892 by Mr. C. Gr. Barrett, 

 and in 1893 by the late lamented Mr. J. Jenner Weir. The former is 

 essentially an essay on Mimicry as exhibited in our native lepidoptera, 

 written by a keen, observant and enthusiastic naturalist, who sees more 

 than most people, remembers what he sees, and conveys clearly to his 

 readers his own ideas of the bearing of the observations which he 

 makes. It is an address, to overlook which is a serious loss to the 

 lepidopterist who misses it ; an address which every student will re- 

 quire for reference in the years to come. The other address is equally 

 valuable. Thoughtful, closely-reasoned, and scientific is the criticism 

 which Mr. Weir offers on Science as it is. Sympathetic and genial are 

 his references to those whom we are pleased to own as our mastei's in 

 the philosophical natural history of to-day. Intelligent and scientific 

 are the remarks he makes on those points of the subject which he 

 touches. It is a remarkable paper, which will long live in the memory of 

 those of us who were privileged to know him. But these papers are 

 by no means all. The notes accompanying the exhibits made by Messrs. 

 Adkin, Weir, South, Tugwell, Hawes and others, are worthy of all 

 praise. Three other papers, "Kemarks on Pieris napi and allied forms," 

 "Notes on the Wet and Dry Season forms of certain species of 

 Bhopidoccra " and " Isochromatous Lepidoptera," by Mr. Weir ; " Notes 

 on the Cocoons of Erlogaster laneslris," ])y Mr. R. Adkin ; " On the un- 

 usual abundance of Polyoinmatus phloeas in 1893," by Mr. Hawes, to- 

 gether with other papers of perhaps equal interest, show that this is a 



