168 THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 



Caterpillars stopping a Eailway Train. — " To say that a 

 train had been stopped b)^ caterpillars would sound like a Yankee 

 yarn, yet such a thing (according to the ' Rangitikei Advocate ') 

 actually took place on the local railway a few days ago. In the 

 neighbourhood of Turakina, New Zealand, an army of caterpillars, 

 hundreds of thousands strong, was marching across the line, 

 bound for a new field of oats, when the train came along. 

 Thousands of the creeping vermin were crushed by the wheels of 

 the engine, and suddenly the train came to a dead stop. On 

 examination it was found that the wheels of the engine had 

 become so greasy that they kept on revolving without advancing 

 — they could not grip the rails. The guard and the engine- 

 driver procured sand and strewed it on the rails, and the engine 

 made a fresh start ; but it was found that during the stoppage 

 caterpillars in thousands had crawled all over the engine, and 

 over all the carriages inside and out." — ' Colonies and India.' 



NOTICE OF NEW BOOK. 



A Manual of Injurious Insects. By E. A. Ormerod, F.M.S., &c. 

 London: W. Swan Sonnenschein & Allen. 1881. 



Everyone interested in agriculture or floriculture should get 

 this work, . and, once having it, will wonder how he got along 

 without it. It gives concise descriptions, with many figures, of 

 such insect enemies as we have in our gardens and fields, with 

 suggestions for the best methods of prevention, and the remedies 

 for their attacks. 



We first find a short introduction to Entomology ; the 

 different orders being illustrated with a familiar type sjjecies, 

 showing figures of imago, larvse, pupee, &c. The work is then 

 divided into three parts. Part I. being on " Food Crops, and the 

 insects that injure them ;" Part II. " On Forest Trees, and the 

 insects that injure them ;" and Part III. relates to " Fruit Crops." 

 Lastly is a useful glossary of technical and other terms used in 

 the book. A more extended notice will appear in another 

 number, but, in the meantime, a more useful present will not be 

 found for the village school library or our country cousin. 



The work is popularly written, and is unencumbered with 

 unnecessary scientific terms, and so brings the subject within the 

 power of the least initiated. — J. T. C. 



