78 (March, 



basis of the above note was communicated to me by Mr. Ricketts of this town, who 

 told me that it was the secret of the great success of an old professional collector. — 

 H. G. Knaggs, Folkestone: January, 1895. 



Pin-forceps. — All who use ordinary pin-forceps know the defects and the 

 consequent danger of damaging specimens with them. They are made so as not to 

 slip down pins when in use ; but they do not prevent a pin in their grasp swaying 

 under pressure backwards or forwards. To give thorough firmness of grip to the 

 holders, the strice should be cut crosswise, and not (as in the usual pattern of forceps) 

 all in the same direction ; it might be advantageous, too, if in one or in both 

 directions they were cut less coarsely than at present. Cross striae can easily be cut 

 on the holders by any one with the edge of a chrome-hardened steel knife-sharpener. 

 — A. E. Eaton, Biskra, Algeria : December Slsf, 1894. 



The Cabbage Eoot Maggot : by M. V. Slingeeland. Forming Bulletin 

 VS of the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station, Entomological 

 Division. November, 1894. 



This bulky Bulletin of nearly 100 pages is a good sample of the work being 

 done under the auspices of the Cornell University, and of the thoroughness with 

 which American Economic Entomologists attack any subject they take up. It will 

 prove of equal value on this side, for the fly (which our author decides should bear 

 the name of Phorbia brassicce, Bouche) is equally destructive here, and was no 

 doubt imported into the United States. Those interested must consult tlie Bulletin 

 for details. Suffice it to say that the author concludes that prevention is better than 

 cure, and the principal preventive recommended is an ingeniously contrived tarred 

 card, so placed as to intercept and hold prisoners the female flies when seeking to 

 oviposit. The injury caused by the fly must not be confounded with what is 

 known as " club root " in cabbages, which is due to a fungus, nor with galls caused by 

 Ceuthorrhynchus. As a cure, an emulsion, of which carbolic acid is the active ingre- 

 dient, is the most recommended. 



A Handbook of the British Macro-Lepidoptera : by Bertram Geo. 

 Eye, F.E.S. ; with hand-coloured illustrations by Maud Hoeman-Fishee. Lon- 

 don : Ward and Foxlow. January, 1895. 



The author of this projected new work on British Lepidoptera is a son of a 

 former editor of thia Magazine, whose untimely end his colleagues so greatly de- 

 plored. The form and getting up are excellent. No just idea of a work of this 

 nature can be had from a first part, so much of wliicli is necessarily taken up by 

 introductory details. The figures are good. Our young friend, by an unlucky slip, 

 attributes wild carrot as the natural food of the larva of Papilio 3Iachaon. It is 

 scarcely necessary to state that Peucedanum paliistre is the natural and apparently 

 exclusive food in the fen haunts of the insect in this country. 



