The Zoologist— July, 1868. 1291 



fertile and fervid imagination of Mr. Wollaston and his reviewer. 

 Such is history : one generation erects a monument to commemorate 

 an event ; the next generation obliterates the inscription that recorded 

 the event. We all recollect in how skilful a manner Dr. Whately 

 enveloped the existence of the first Napoleon in such a dense fog of 

 doubt, that we rose from the perusal of his labours in a state of 

 perfect bewilderment; and yet the name of Napoleon then filled 

 every publication that issued from the press: every adult in the 

 civilized world regarded Napoleon as the greatest name, whether for 

 good or for evil, that history has preserved, and Whateley's essay was 

 a mere satire on the sceptic, yet penned with such excessive skill that 

 many scarcely knew whether he was in jest or earnest. Thus may the 

 sceptic hereafter dispute inch by inch the facts which Mr. Wollaston 

 has recorded with so much precision, and may prove from isothermal 

 lines, oceanic currents, latitude and longitude, that the Eupborbiaceae 

 could never have grown in the Cape Verdes, and that therefore the 

 euphorbian fauna must have been a myth. 



I cannot leave this volume without expressing a hope that I shall 

 find time and space to return to it again. The divisions which 

 Mr. Wollaston has used are scarcely sufficient, siuce before the 

 entomologist can obtain any satisfactory view of the coleopterous 

 fauna of any country, he must have the species arranged under those 

 families and family names with which he is familiar. Mr. Wollaston's 

 labours enable me to do this, and I hope hereafter to tabulate the 

 comparative statistics I have already began to extract. 



Edward Newman. 



Ornithological Notes. By George Roberts, Esq. 



Dates of Arrival of the Summer Migrants in 1868. — April 9th. Saw 

 wheatear. 10th. Saw swallows about the River Aire. 20th. Saw 

 yellow wagtail. 21st. Heard willow wren. 23rd. Cuckoo heard. 

 25th. Saw tree pipits in numbers : swallows more dispersed. 

 26th. Heard several cuckoos : heard whitethroat, whinchat and chiff- 

 chaff". May 3rd. Heard sedge warbler: saw house martin and sand 

 martin. 6th. Heard lesser whitethroat and corn crake: whinchats 

 numerous. 10th. Heard wood warbler and garden warbler : redstart, 

 blackcap and spotted ilycatcher not seen. Mr. J. A. Harvie Brown 

 says the flycatcher is the first of the migrants to arrive in Stirlingshire 



