RECENT LITERATURE, 159 
ing in turn with Nomenclature, History in Britain, the Theory of its 
Occurrence, Probable Lines of Migration and Immigration, Local 
Habits, Variation and Aberration, Reasons of Irregular Abundance 
beyond the confines of its area of Natural Distribution, &e. A con- 
siderable discussion took place. 
April 9th—Mr. R. Adkin in the chair.—Mr. C. P. Emmett was 
elected a member.—Mr. R. Adkin exhibited three Dasychira 
fascelina, one with the usual black transverse lines largely yellow, 
and another with the black markings intensified with absence of the 
yellow freckling.—Mr. Edwards, several very conspicuous and beauti- 
ful Heterocera from Burmah, including Argina argus, Huchromia 
formosa, &e.—My. Sich, specimens of Lita melanella, first discovered 
in England by the late Mr. Boyd in 1858. They were from Wey- 
mouth.—Mr. H. J. Turner, a long series of Hrebia pronoé from the 
Austrian Tyrol and Switzerland, and read notes on the variation, 
both local and aberrant, and the distribution of the species.—Mr. 
West, Greenwich, several drawers of the Society’s collection of 
British Lepidoptera, to show the additions made in the Pyrales and 
Tortrices by the donations from Mr. Dawson.—Mr. Platt Barrett, a 
series of Coccyx strobilella bred from spruce cones collected at West 
Wickham some weeks ago.— Hy. J. Turner, Hon. Rep. Sec. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
1. The Life of the Spider. By J. H. Fasre. London: Hodder & 
Stoughton. 
2. The Life of the Fly. With which are interspersed some chapters 
of Autobiography. By J. H. Fasre. London: Hodder & 
Stoughton. 
ENGLISH readers should owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Alexander 
Teixeira de Mattos for the admirable translation which he has given 
in these two volumes of a number of J. H. Fabre’s most delightful 
‘souvenirs,’ and to the publishers, also, thanks. The books are 
light to handle, and so well printed as to be a joy to read. Although 
there are no illustrations, this is scarcely a matter for regret. Fabre 
is so proficient with the pen, and so perfect an artist in words, that 
no descriptive writer could need pictorial illustration less. And yet 
we should like to have seen a picture of the author himself in the 
second of these volumes, where, under the title of ‘ The Life of the 
Fly,’ we can learn almost as much about his own life as we can 
about that of the fly. His early struggles; the enthusiasm, the 
patience and perseverance which carried him through all his difficul- 
ties ; the nature of his ancestors and the kind of schooling he had, 
and how much, or how little, these could account for that passionate 
love of the insect, and that spirit of observation which gained for 
him from Darwin the title of ‘inimitable observer.’ All these, and 
other matters relating to his life, are so modestly and charmingly 
