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Art. VIII. — French Periodical Works on Entomologij. 



1. IconograpMe et Histoire NaUirelle des Coleopteres 

 d'Europe, par M. le Comte Dejean et M. Boisduval. 

 Paris. 



2. Histoire Natiirelle des Lepidopteres, ou Papillons de 

 France, jiar M. Godart, continvte par M. Duponchel, 

 Paris. 



3. Magasin de Zoologie, par M. Guerin. Paris. 



The titles above given, will convince our readers that our 

 Parisian neighbours are by no means behind ourselves in the 

 encouragement given to periodical w^orks on Entomology. 

 Here are three works, all of them vying with our ablest pro- 

 ductions, and superior, in scientific accuracy, to much which 

 we have submitted to us by our countrymen. The plates in 

 these works (we speak of them in a mass, and make no 

 invidious comparison), are ever somewhat exaggerated : there 

 seems, to us, a perpetual desire to make each representation of 

 an insect more conspicuous — more showy — than the insect itself. 

 This has ever been an erroneous practice : we are happy to 

 see it is fast falling into disuse. When we compare the able 

 works, whose titles we have given above, with the figures 

 enlarged, and often preposterously coloured, of early conti- 

 nental authors, we cannot but be sensible of a great improve- 

 ment in this respect. It seems to us, that the pictorial branch 

 of natural history should strive to give a more correct idea 

 of nature than we can possibly do by words. It should never 

 be an object of ambition with the draughtsman " to copy 

 Nature, and improve her too." 



M. Dejean's Iconographie has, from the well-known talents 

 of its authors, attained a rank in science which makes it a work 

 of continual reference. The descriptions are generally clear and 

 distinct ; but we fancy we observe, in the plate before us, 

 representing the genera Anchomenus and Agonum, rather too 

 great a sameness of character. The legs, for instance, in either 

 species, would, with but very little alteration in the shade of 

 colour, do for all. Great attention should be paid to catch the 

 peculiar character of each species, and fix that character in 

 delineating it. The objection we refer to, we believe often 



