2IO NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept.. 



to, Mr. Barrett gives much valuable information on the variation' 

 which each species exhibits. Some very beautiful and striking forms- 

 are described and figured, and we are grateful to Mr. Barrett for not 

 having thought it necessary to give to each a special name. As in 

 the first volume, the facts of variation alone are noticed, theories as 

 to the cause thereof being severely left alone. The preparatory 

 stages of each insect are also carefully described, while the habits of 

 caterpillar and moth are fully set forth with the detail to be expected 

 from so experienced a collector and observer as our author. The 

 British localities for each species appear to have been compiled with 

 much care, and the difficulty of making such information reliable is 

 rendered very great by the vast number of records which are 

 scattered through our entomological magazines, and the untrustworthy 

 nature of a not inconsiderable minority of them. Mr. Barrett seems 

 to have well sifted doubtful captures, and his long experience of moths 

 and those who catch and sell them renders his opinion on such 

 subjects of much value. The pages of his book will furnish a store- 

 house of facts for students of the range of species within the British 

 Islands, and we are very glad to notice that the insular distribution 

 is supplemented by a summary of the general distribution of each 

 insect. It is sad to read of the restriction of range or total extinction 

 undergone by some rare species, it is to be feared from the greed of 

 collectors. Lalia ccenosa has apparently disappeared from our fauna, 

 and Ocneria dispav has only been preserved in a domesticated con- 

 dition by rearing the larva through many generations. Some solace 

 for these losses is afforded by the recent immigration of Callimoypha 

 Jura into Devonshire, where this beautiful moth has apparently 

 established itself without artificial help. 



With regard to specific names, Mr. Barrett gives, in equally 

 conspicuous type, both those of the Doubleday list, so familiar to the 

 older British lepidopterists, and those of the Staudinger Catalogue, 

 used in Mr. South's later list. As the Doubleday name in each 

 instance stands first, we presume that is preferred by the author. In 

 the introduction (in vol. i.) Mr. Barrett deliberately declines to settle 

 the competing claims of the various names in use. We rather regret 

 this, as any objection he might have to the generally accepted names 

 of the Staudinger Catalogue would be undoubtedly worth con- 

 sideration, while if there be no valid objection to them, it is very 

 undesirable to perpetuate differences of specific nomenclature 

 between British and Continental naturalists. In generic nomen- 

 clature, uniformity is of course impossible, unless the value of generic 

 divisions can be agreed upon. We would only point out that the 

 name Liparis, which has so long been familiar as the type genus 

 of the " Tussocks," properly belongs to a fish. In Mr. Kirby's recent 

 " Catalogue " it is replaced by Lymantria, and the family name 

 should, of course, be changed too. 



The coloured plates which accompany the large paper edition 

 are good. Presumably on account of the issue of the work in the 

 two forms, there is no reference whatever to them in the text, an 

 omission which certainly diminishes their usefulness. Nor does even 

 an advertisement in the plain edition (which alone we have received 

 for review) give any hint of their existence. But for our power 

 of access to a library where the larger edition has been taken in, we 

 should have been debarred from the pleasure of mentioning them. 



While, therefore, the method in which the larger aspects of the 

 subject are dealt with by Mr. Barrett leaves much to be desired, his 

 work must prove a most valuable book of reference for all interested 



