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, Eeasons of Irregular Abundance 

 beyond the confines of its area of Natural Distribution, &c. A con- 

 siderable discussion took place. 



A2Jyil 9th.— My. 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, Euchromia 

 formosa, &c. — Mr. 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 Erehia projioe 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. Piatt Barrett, a 

 series of Coccyx strohilella bred from spruce cones collected at West 

 Wickham some weeks ago. — Hy. J. Turner, Hon. Bep. Sec. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



1. The Life of the Spider. By J. H. Fabre. London : Hodder & 



Stoughton. 



2. The Life of the Fly. With which are interspersed some chapters 



of Autobiography. By J. H. Fabre. 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 pubhshers, 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 hke 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 Hfe, are so modestly and charmingly 



