265 Bibliographical Notice. 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE. 
A Manual for the Study of Insects. By Joan Henry Comstock, 
Professor of Entomology in Cornell University and in Leland 
Stanford Junior University ; and Anna Borsrorp Comstock, Member 
of the Society of American Wood-Engravers. 8yvo. Ithaca, N. Y., 
1895. Pp. xii, 701. Coloured frontispiece, 5 plain plates, and 
woodcuts. 
Ir is no longer possible, as when Fabricius published his ‘ Systema 
Entomologie’ in 1775, to compress the descriptions of all the 
known insects of the world into a single volume ; nor is it possible 
to compress the results of all the best work on alli the orders of 
insects into two moderate-sized volumes, as was still the case in 
1840, when Westwood published his great work on the ‘ Modern 
Classification of Insects,’ a work still of the greatest value to ento- 
mologists, and which could never be superseded except by a whole 
library written by a very large syndicate of specialists. We have 
not even any later book dealing with British Entomology on the 
lines of Westwood’s ‘ Introduction,’ our books on general British 
Entomology being only popular works, chiefly of value to beginners. 
But in North America they are more fortunate ; for Prof. Packard's 
‘Guide to the Study of Insects,’ first published in 1869, deals with 
American insects as comprehensively, though somewhat more 
popularly, than Westwood dealt with the insects of the world ; 
and we are glad to add that the book has been fully appreciated, 
having run through more editions in a comparatively short time than 
perhaps any other entomological book ever published. And now 
Professor Comstock, already known to all entomologists by much 
valuable work, among which we may specially mention his writings 
on scale-insects (Coccide) and on the neuration of insects, has 
published a ‘Manual for the Study of Insects,’ which, though 
treating almost exclusively of North-American insects, will yet be 
found indispensable to all students of entomology who study those 
groups of insects which the author has discussed in adequate detail. 
The book is handsomely got up, even as regards the outside, being 
bound in light grey, with silver lettering, and having a butterfly 
resting on a flower on the back and a spider’s web in the corner of 
the upper cover. The paper and print are very good; there is a 
coloured frontispiece representing plants, butterflies, and beetles, 
and the book is crowded with illustrations, including both woodcuts 
and plain plates. In fact it is almost too well got up, for it weighs 
twice as much as would be expected from its size, which cannot be 
considered an advantage in any book. 
Although Prof. Comstock does not include the Crustacea, Arach- 
nida, and Myriapoda among the insects (the two latter are treated 
by Dr. Packard, with the Insects, as subclasses of Tracheata), yet 
they receive a brief mention at the commencement of his volume, 
