^8 



dents. It is full of admirable diagrams and illustrations, for the most part original, and 

 it takes up for discussion some of the commonest insects in the different orders that can 

 be readily procured by any one. For instance, the external structure and the internal 

 anatomy of insects are first taught by means of the common locust {Caloptenus), which 

 can be taken in quantities anywhere ; a May fly (^Ephemera), a Dragon-fly, a Cockroach, 

 a May-beetle, the Archippus butterfly, etc., are used to illustrate the different orders. No 

 teacher or student need be at a loss for material with which to follow out the instructions 

 in the book. The whole book is excellent, and we have no doubt that it will be found 

 most valuable in the various agricultural colleges especially, as well as in other educational 

 institutions. 



We may quote the following advice from the opening chapter : — " Encourage child- 

 ren to watch living locusts .... Better a child should learn to handle one animal, to see 

 and know its structure and how it lives and moves, than to go through the whole animal 

 kingdom with the best text-book, under the best teacher, aided by the best charts ever 

 made. The former would have learned what real knowledge is and how to get it, while 

 the latter would have simply learned how to pass at his school examinations." 



C.J.S.B. 



Among the Moths and Butterflies : By Julia P. Ballard. G. P. Putnam's Sons, 

 New York ; pp. 237, 1890. 



This beautiful book is an enlarged and revised edition of " Insect Lives," published 

 in 1880, and contains recent studies and many additional illustrations. It treats especially 

 of rearing butterflies, sphinges and moths frona the caterpillars,and is based wholly on the 

 personal observations of the author. Without previous knowledge of entomology, Mrs.. 

 Ballard found herself attracted by some species of caterpillar, and followed it up to pupa ■ 

 and imago, making original discoveries at every step, and gaining experience day by day, 

 she has become an expert in that line. Many of the species treated of, if their earlier 

 history is mentioned at all in books, have never been so carefully studied as here ; witness 

 the story of the Great Leopard Moth, the Bulrush Caterpillar, the Monkey-faced Moth, 

 the Beechnut Box, the Rosy Dryocampa. Of many others, better known than these, 

 there are interesting notes, as Orgyla lencostigma, Deilephila lineata, Cerotocampa regalis. 

 The enthusiasm of the authoress is contagious, and makes the reader wish that spring 

 would hurry along. I do not know of any book — certainly there is none in America — 

 which has attempted to enter the field now taken possession of by Mrs. Ballard. If any 

 good pater, or aunt, or cousin, wishes to do a good turn to an active boy or girl, they 

 could not do better than put this book in the young person's hand — at the same ticie a 

 net and cjllecting apparatus (which our good friend John Akhurst will be happy to fur- 

 nish), and bid them, when spring comes, search the fields and woods as Mrs. Ballard has 

 done. The difference between eyes and no eyes is wonderful, and occupying the former 

 will keep young people out of mischief, at least giving them something to do and to think 

 of. Once let a boy put his foot over the threshold of this temple of ours and catch a 

 glimpse of the inner mystery, and there will be no idle and wasted hours. And to this 

 end the authoress of " Moths and Butterflies " has well served her generation. 



W. H. Edwards. 



Manual of Animals Injurious and Beneficial to Agriculture : By Dr. J, 



Ritzema Bos, Lecturer at the Agricultural College of Wageningen, Holland. 



Berlin, 1891. 



This magnificent volume in German makes one wish that English-speaking farmers 

 and gardeners, as well as Entomologists, possessed in their own language, and for their 

 respective countries, a similar compendium of knowledge on the " Animals injurious and 

 beneficial to agriculture, Cattle-breeding, Forestry and Horticulture." 



This work of 876 pages contains all the information necessary concerning the forms, 

 occurrences, life history in relation with man of his various animal friends and foes, and 

 the curative and preventive measures against their attacks. The newest discoveries of 



