Bibliographical Notices. 237 



Perhaps I am mistaken, but it has struck me in running through 

 this volume that this very necessity for close examination into 

 minute details in working out the species of PyralidaB has had what 

 most lepidopterists will consider a beneficent effect, in reducing the 

 long strings of synonyms which are met with continually in the 

 earlier volumes of the Moths. In Volume IV. they appear chiefly 

 in the boldly marked groups, such as Nymphula in the Hydro- 

 campinae. However, in a work which will be an undoubted boon, 

 not only to all collectors in the East, but to all living lepidopterists, 

 it is hardly fair to criticize the author's views respecting the limits 

 of species : if he concludes that the species of certain genera are 

 subject to unlimited variation combined with very extensive geogra- 

 phical distribution, he has, by his unwearied industry, earned a full 

 right to his opinions. 



Taken as a whole, the four volumes of the Moths of India have, 

 without question, been worked out in so masterly a manner and 

 are so infinitely superior as text-books of families and genera to 

 anything previously produced, that they must necessarily give a 

 great impetus to the study of Heterocerous Lepidoptera. 



A. G. BUTLEK. 



The Parasitic Diseases of Poultry. By PEED. V. THEOBALD, M.A., 

 F.E.S. London : Giirney & Jackson, 1896. Pp. xv & 120. 



THIS little book should prove useful not only to poultry-rearers 

 but also to the scientist and veterinarian. It opens with an 

 introductory chapter on parasites and parasitism in general, at the 

 conclusion of which the author rightly insists on the importance 

 of cleanliness and healthy surroundings for poultry items too 

 much neglected by the majority of poultry-keepers. Por the 

 purpose of description, the Parasites are divided into Animal and 

 Vegetable ; and the Animal Parasites are subdivided into (1) 

 Protozoan Parasites, (2) Insect Parasites (fleas, lice, &c.), (3) Mite 

 Parasites, and (4) Worm Parasites. These are again divided into 

 their natural groups, and under each group the symptoms and 

 appearances of the diseases, the parasites producing them, with their 

 life-histories and mode of distribution, and the means of prevention 

 and treatment, are fully dealt with. The last should be very 

 valuable, especially as it is the outcome of the author's own 

 experience ; it would have been better, however, to have used the 

 term " lime-washed " throughout, instead of, in most instances, the 

 somewhat loose one, " whitewashed." 



Commencing with Diphtheritic Roup, the opinion is expressed 

 that though there may be three varieties of this affection, it is 

 generally protozoan in nature. Its extreme contagiousness is 

 certainly against this view, and such authorities as Cornil and 

 Babes and Loffler favour the bacterial theory of its origin. On 

 page 6 " Cornet " is evidently a misprint for " Cornil." 



Ann. & Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. xix. 17 



