1142 [November, 



EuEOPEAN BuTTEEFLiES : by W. F. DE VisMES Kane, M.A., M.R.I. A., Memb. 

 Ent. Soc. Lond. Pp. xxi and 184, and 15 plates, 8vo. London : Macmillan & Co. 

 1885. 



In some respects this book is got up on the plan of Kirby's " Manual," pub- 

 lished in 1862, but it is on a much extended form. It reminds us of Wood's 

 " Tourists' Flora," a useful work long out of print, and of which a new edition is 

 much needed. It is of a handy, portable size, and may well serve as an indispensable 

 travelling companion to all butterfly-collecting tourists and others. The descriptions 

 seem to be excellent, and the local information is usually full. The 15 plates of 

 crowded figures are reproduced from photographs. Naturally in those cases to which 

 photography is applicable they are true, and excel any coloured figures that could be 

 produced ; but in other instances more or less failure is evident, and notably in the 

 Fritillaries, which give one the idea of being all taken from the well-known dark 

 varieties of these insects. The geographical area is limited to Europe proper, and 

 the arrangement and nomenclature are as in " Staudinger." Curiously enough we 

 find our old friend Papilio Podalirius figuring as P. Sinon, Poda. It is true that 

 Staudinger did so designate the insect in the first instance, but in the " corrigenda " 

 at p. 422 of his Catalogue he restored Podalirius (L., S. N., ed. x). The work 

 should have an extensive sale ; it supplies a want in being portable ; much care has 

 evidently been bestowed upon it, and it is well printed ; the errors are few con- 

 sidering the large number of names of localities introduced. In a second edition 

 the local information can be brought nearer down to date. A more complete list of 

 Italian species was published by Antonio Curd in Bull. Ent. Ital., 1874, whereas 

 our author only mentions the old list for the Kingdom of Sardinia by Ghiliani in 

 1852 ; and other analogous instances might be cited. 



Elementary Text Book of Entomology : by W. F. Kieby, Assistant m 

 Zoological Department, British Museum, and co-Secretary of the Entomological 

 Society of London. 240-pp., with 87 plates, containing over 650 figures. London : 

 W. Swan Sonnenschein & Co. 1885. 



This book has been before us for several months. To a reviewer (if he know 

 anything at all of the subject on which any particular book treats) first impressions 

 are generally the best. Our first impressions were unfavourable; furthermore, im- 

 mediately after the appearance of the work, some one was so enthusiastic in its praises 

 as to state, amongst other things, that by its help " the insect must be a rare one 

 indeed whose genus — and perhaps even whose species — the reader fails to determine 

 without difficulty." Mr. Kirby estimates the number of known species of in- 

 sects at about 222,000. The work is not a "Text Book." It is a laborious 

 compilation on which much time must have been spent for small useful purpose, 

 save that a considerable number of recorded statements are brought together ; 

 but those to whom these generalities will be welcome are precisely those who 

 will find the dry details unintelligible. It is almost the first time that, in 

 a book of such pretensions, we fail to find the name of either printer or artist. 

 The printing, paper, &c., are good ; the errors (there is no list of errata) must 

 be ascribed to the author — no printer or elementary entomologist would com- 



