116 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



Random Recollections of Woodland, Fen and Hill ; and Woodside, Burnside, 

 Hillside and Mapsh : By J. W. Tutt, Editor of the Entomologists' Record and 

 Journal of Variation. London : Swan, Sonnenschein it Co. 



The name of the author of these two volumes must be familiar to our readers as an 

 occasional contributor to our pages, while he is widely known as a writer of much 

 scientific repute on matters concerning the lepidoptera. In these two books he has 

 assumed a lighter and more popular role ; his aim has been — to quote his own words — 

 " to bring under the notice of the general public, in readable and untechnical language, a 

 few of the interestirg phenomena which are to be observed everywhere around us by 

 those who take the trouble to look for them, and to give such explanations of their causes 

 as may easily be understood even by those whose scientific knowledge is small," He has 

 certainly catried out his design most successfully and given to the world two very 

 charming and interesting books on out-of-doors natural history. Any one, whether young 

 or old, who takes any pleasure in the beauties of nature and any interest in the varied 

 world of animal and vegetable life, will read them with the greatest delight and follow 

 the author with unflagging interest during his rambles over hill and dale, and by marsh 

 and burn and fen. In the former work more attention is paid to the habits and varia- 

 tions of insects, while the latter treats of any animal or plant that may be met with in 

 expeditions to widely different localities. Amusing episodes and pretty bits of verse 

 enliven the volumes, and many capital pictures render the later one still more attractive. 



C. J. S. B. 



Report op the Entomological Department op the New Jersey Agricultural 

 College Experiment Station : By John B. Smith, Sc. D., for the year 189:3. 



It is obviously impossible to notice all the ever-welcome bulletins and reports that 

 constantly tiow from the various experimental stations throughout North America, for 

 copies of which we are very grateful to their authors. We may, however, call attention 

 to Dr. Smith's excellent departure from the ordinary report. After giving the usual 

 general review of the season, and an account of the most important insect attacks of the 

 year, he devotes a large portion of his work to a most useful and admirable account of the 

 " Beneficial Insects " in all the different orders. It is clearly and plainly written, so as 

 to be within the ccmprehension of non-entomologists, and is profusely illustrated with ex- 

 cellent figures, many of them being new reproductions by means of photography. It 

 ought to be widely distributed, in order to teach the general public that a very large pro- 

 poi-tion of insects are not noxious, and should not be wantonly destroyed. C J. S. B. 



Report of the Entomologist and Botanist (James Fletcher, F R.S.C, F.L.S.)^ 

 Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, 1894. 



Mr. Fletcher's Reports are always interesting and valuable ; and the present record 

 of the chief insect attacks of last year, and his observations upon them, is not less so than 

 its predecessors. The se .son of 1893, as far as destructive insects were concerned, was 

 only remarkable for the superabundance of locusts (grasshoppers), and che consequent 

 damage inflicted upon oats and many other field and garden crops. Other attacks were 

 for the most part of the familiar kinds which we have always with us ; these are briefly 

 mentioned in the Report, while more attention is paid to the serious injury caused to 

 grain crops in Manitoba and the North West by cut- worms, the ravages of locusts, gran- 

 ary insects at the Chisago Exhibition, the horn- fly, etc. Very interesting accounts are 

 also given of Silpha bituberosa, which attacks vegetables in the North West Territories; 

 and PoJyphylla deconlineata, which was very injurious to shrubs of various kinds in a 

 nursery at Victoria, B.C. 



In the Botanical section of the Report there are two papers especially noteworthy : 

 those, namely, on " Grass for the protection of shores and harbors," and on the " Tumble- 

 weeds " of the North West. The pamphlet is illustrated by a handsome full page picture 

 of Mr. Fletcher's grass plots at the Experimental Farm, which are full of interest to every 

 visitor ; and thirty wood-cuts. It is gratifying to observe how steadily the author's repu- 

 tation is growing, and how highly his work has come to be appreciated from one end of 

 the Dominion to the other. C. J. S. B. 



