17 



known for a hundred years until recently disinterred by Mr. Scudder. The 

 author speaks of "a continuous stream of Blue-eyed Graylings, p. i, referring 

 to Satyrus Alope called by Mr. Scudder Cercyonis Alope, and classed under 

 the Meadow Browns in the appendix. In the text he calls it a Grayling, but as 

 the color is not gray, why not a Brownling ? and moreover a Grayling is a tish, 

 {vide Izaak Walton), and the name must be regarded as preoccupied in ichthy- 

 ology. We find Xanthzdia Nicippe, the Black-bordered Yellow.j/ The butter- 

 fly is orange not yellow, and the name might apply to Colias Phuodice but not 

 Nicippe; it is a misfit. Philodice, however, appears as the Clouded Sulphur, though 

 it is not clouded, and on one page (189), this is called the Sulphur Yellow, creat- 

 ing perplexity. Indeed these instances and the reference on p. 287 to the FireWeed 

 as having a blue flower, suggests that the author may have perceptions of color 

 different from those which are usually considered the normal standard. Besides 

 this misapprehension there is a constant effort to deduce general principles from 

 too few facts, or even supposed facts ; for example, the philosophical discussion 

 upon the alleged fact that caterpillars in hatching, always devour their egg- 

 shells ; in point of fact they frequently leave the shells almost intact. So with 

 the incorrect statement that albino females of C. Philodice never appear in the 

 first brood of the season, illustrating the law given by the author that "since 

 melanism is a southern and albinism a iSTorthern peculiarity, we should afitici- 

 pate melanism in the hot and albinism in the cool season." Another instance^ 

 is shown in the assumption that the polymorphic forms of Lycaena Pseudar- 

 gtolus must be related as are the polymorphic forms of Papilio Ajax, and the 

 philosophical discussions following this assumption. ^ 



The Appendix of practical instructions is admirable, and will be read with 

 interest and profit by both the tyro and the specialist. 



If the demerits of the book have been more touched upon than they merit 

 it is because we all know that we may expect good results from Mr. Scudder, and 

 the shortcomings of his work need to be pointed out all the more on that very 

 account. 



