208 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



ences ; wliile all sorts of varieties and forms referred to one- should 

 by rights have been attributed to the other. Mr. Tutt, beginning 

 from the beginning, considers these in detail ; and, by the employ- 

 ment of scientific methods, disposes of the several errors, we trust, 

 for good. 



Throughout the three volumes published, also, he has been able 

 to furnish us with first-hand life-histories of all his subjects, thanks 

 in large measure to the diligence and skill of Dr. T. A. Chapman and 

 the other scientific entomologists who have collected so much useful 

 material for him in each instance. There has been no necessity, 

 therefore, to draw upon doubtful foreign authorities, or to repeat 

 slavishly what experience proves so often to be entirely inaccurate 

 and fanciful. Of the association of Agriades thetis (bellargus) and 

 A. coridon (alas ! for the " 2/ ") entomologists are continually reminded ; 

 of the offspring of cross-pairings we have indubitable examples. Yet 

 how close the association actually is we have never realized so com- 

 pletely as after a perusal of the pages devoted by Mr. Tutt to the 

 " Clifden Blue." With Cyaniris seviiargus (we have long since 

 dropped the improper ''acis," no doubt because the "Mazarine Blue" 

 can no more be accounted British !), the four species mentioned 

 complete this particular instalment of Mr. Tutt's work, and it may 

 be said truly, therefore, that it represents quality as well as quantity. 

 We may venture to suggest, however, that as there is to be an 

 Entomological Congress in August at Brussels, Mr. Tutt should take 

 the opportunity to impress upon his brother lepidopterists abroad 

 their nomenclatorial shortcomings, and the desirability of some sort 

 of fixity. As it is, we owe him a debt of gratitude for helping to 

 unknit an extremely " ravelled skein " ; while at the same time 

 descanting on the British butterflies in something better than the 

 pedantic spirit of the book-naturalist. 



The fifty-eight black-and-white plates, moreover, are not entirely 

 devoted to the very important but highly specialized subjects of 

 the microscope. Mr. F. Noad Clark, Mr. A. E. Tonge, and Mr. 

 Hugh Main excel as exponents of the art of photo-micrography, 

 but to the average reader their studies of the " blues " and their 

 surroundings, of their larvae and pupae — many of them now authenti- 

 cally illustrated for the first time, in the earlier stages — will commend 

 themselves even more than the highly technical biological details. 

 We are glad to observe, further, that Mr. Tutt is not content merely 

 to catalogue and describe the multifarious aberrations of the larger 

 Lycaenids. Where possible, he adds a figure which leaves us in no 

 doubt as to the accuracy of the letterpress — a test which cannot 

 always be applied to other writers. Thus it will be seen that 

 Volume iii. of the British butterflies is an altogether worthy successor 

 to those already published, and it is to be hoped, therefore, that 

 liberal support will be forthcoming to continue the series, both in 

 the form of an increased subscription list and of extended co-opera- 

 tion by entomologists who have acquired material that may assist 

 the solution of the many problems which arise when any species, 

 however common, comes to be examined by other than the casual 

 methods of the "mere collector." 



(H. E.-B.) 



