458 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
give a complete list of insects. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity 
of inspecting a couple of beetles, which were caught on the estate of a 
respected friend of mine, the Hon. A. D. van der Yon Netscher, formerly a 
landed proprietor in Demerara, and member of the Council there. They 
were trapped by one of his coolies while in the act of burrowing in the 
ground for the evident purpose of finding their way through a hole in the 
rhizome up to the top of the tree, in order, by the attacks of their larvee, to 
destroy it; the whole according to the manner described by Mr. Russell, 
whose very interesting account is fully corroborated by Mr. Netscher’s, who 
has very obligingly drawn it up from his own experience, at my request. 
The beetles are a male and female, well known in the country as belonging 
to the real destroyers of cocoa-nut trees, and from their very prominent 
features, easily recognizable as answering in every point—the male to the 
description of the Scarabeus aloé, the other, or female, to that of the 
S. alveus in Dr. Voet’s ‘Catalogus Systematicus Coleopterorum,’ both 
insects being stated to belong to Surinam. Let me add that, from their 
hirsute aspect, they look a by no means very amiable couple.” 
The Secretary exhibited a Longicorn beetle which had been sent from 
Birkenhead by Mr. David Henderson. It had been captured on the wing 
in that town, having probably flown from a ship in the river. 
Mr. J. W. Slater read a paper entitled “Vivarium Notes on some 
common Coleoptera.”—R. Mrrpowa, Hon. Sec. 
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 
A List of British Birds. The Genera arranged according to 
Sundevall’s Method; the Nomenclature revised by Henry T. 
Wauarton, M.A., M.R.C.S., F.Z.S. Post 8vo, pp. 20. 
London: Van Voorst. 1877. 
THE question of zoological classification would furnish study 
for a life-time, and the more we look into it the further we seem 
from a satisfactory solution. Nor is the difficulty much lessened 
by restricting ourselves to a particular class, Aves, and limiting 
our enquiry still further by dealing only with British birds. The 
subject of “affinities” is so intricate, and “nomenclature” has 
become so involved and perplexing, that he is a bold man who 
attempts to arrange the one and revise the other. And yet if 
no “system” has hitherto been proposed which has met with 
universal approbation on the part of ornithologists, it has not been 
for want of suggestions. We have before us half-a-dozen modern 
