166 



99 parts water for forty-eight hours, advice evidently uot based on ex- 

 perience and uot appreciative of the ease with which tobacco is spoiled 

 for the trade. 



Popular Entomology.' — We have just received from the author, Mr. 

 William Hamilton Gibson, the well-known magazine artist, a popular 

 work on natural history, which for abundance, elegance, and delicacy 

 of illustrations and careful presswork has seldom been suri)assed in 

 publications of its character. 



The work consists of short, chatty chapters, wonderfully varied and 

 changing in toj)ic, dealing with the curious or striking in various fields 

 of natural history, but particularly with entomological and botanical 

 subjects. No general plan or order of subjects is followed. The book 

 is divided into four parts, viz, Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter, 

 and the various topics are grouped in each as they would be suggested 

 to one sauntering daily out of doors with no other thought than to ex- 

 plain any strange or curious object or iJhenomena connected with ani- 

 mate nature. 



The studies are for the most part, as he says, from his own observa- 

 tions and experience of early years, and are written in popular style. 

 The accuracy of the illustrations, together with the diversity of obser- 

 vations of curious and striking facts, original with the author, but for 

 the most part common and well known to students, sustain the author's 

 claim to " sharp eyes " indicated in the title. 



This, together Avith his fertility in exi^lanation of the phenomena 

 observed, makes the work especially valuable for the hands of children 

 and young people, for whom it was more particularly designed. 



The author is evidently most at home and does his best work in the 

 entomological tield, and his popularization of the marvels of insect par- 

 asitism, as illustrated in the chapter on "The Bewitched Cocoon of 

 Polyphemus" and "Those Puzzling Cocoon Clusters" ( J/?>iw/«.S'fer), are 

 particularly good in matter and illustrations. Of almost equal interest 

 are many other chapters, as, for instance, " The Brownie-jugs and the 

 Brownie" {Eumenes fraterna), "A Butterfly Serenade " (the voice of An- 

 tiopa), and many others. 



Chapters on the curious in plant life are scattered through the work, 

 and also chai^ter on birds, etc. 



The illustrations, of which there are over 300, are, with one or two 

 exceptions, executed by the author, are original and pleasing in design, 

 remarkably accurate in delineation of habits and form, and give the 

 work much of the value it possesses, the figure of Thalessa ovipositing- 

 being an apparent adaptation of the studies on this iu.sect recorded in 

 Vol. 1 of Insect Life. 



*Sbarp Eyes: A rambler's calendar of fifty-two weeks among Insects, Birds, and 

 Flowers. By William Hamilton Gibson. Illustrated by the author. New York : Har- 

 per & Bros., Franklin Square. 1892. [Sie!'\ 



