The Zoologist — November, 1870. 2349 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



' Travels of a Naturalist in Japan and Manchuria.'' By Arthur 

 Adams, F.L.S., Staflf-Suigeon, R.N. Hurst & Blackett. 1870. 

 334 pp. Demy 8vo. 



(Second and concluding Notice.) 



We are now in China : my fellow-traveller, for I cannot forego the 

 companionship of one so agreeable, has just been describing the pro- 

 portions of some minute monster of the deep, and comparing him with 

 the sea serpent. Shade of Hans Egede ! ghost of Pontoppidan ! can 

 you repose in your frost-bound tombs when you hear of a sea serpent 

 fourteen inches long ? It is an outrage on common sense. Had the 

 length been extended to fourteen hundred feet it might have been 

 borne; if yards, it would have been triumphant; but fourteen inches! 

 the subject is too painful. It boots little that Mr. Adams compromises 

 the matter by stating that he obtained many of these Trichiuri at 

 Staunton Island five feet in length: the "fourteen inches" is 

 insuperable ! 



I turn with relief to a shower of insects, a subject which was 

 formerly very familiar to the readers of the ' Zoologist,' and one which 

 has been reproduced of late years usque ad nauseam by every entomo- 

 logist who can hold a pen. Coccinella bipunctata, Coccinella septem- 

 punctata, Syrphus Pyrastri, Syrphus balteatus, &c., have reappeared 

 as freshly and as vigorously as if they had never been embalmed in 

 the pages of the ' Zoologist ;' but in this instance it is a lamellicorn, 

 a species of Rhizotragus, that invites our attention. 



" A few nights before the landing of the allied forces at the Pei-ho 

 an interesting phenomenon was visible, namely, that of mock moons 

 and a double rainbow. A circumstance, moreover, which superstitious 

 Chinamen might also regard as a portent, but which the naturalist 

 M'ould certainly look upon with interest, was a shower of beetles. 

 A black species of Rhizotragus (a sort of chaffer) fell down upon the 

 ships in countless numbers. Our awnings were spread, and the beetles 

 descended continuously all the first watch. Numbers were crushed 

 and trodden into the deck, leaving greasy patches which it required 

 the carpenter's plane to obliterate. They afforded constant excitement 

 to ' Belle,' a beautiful retriever, who passed the night in chasing and 

 crunching them between her teeth. In the morning heaps of the 



SECOND SERIES — VOIi. V. 3 F 



