392 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Field Clubs and local Natural History Societies ; we have watched 

 their progress, and have perused with interest their published 

 ' Transactions' as they have appeared. Some have succeeded 

 from the first, have been energetically supported by practical 

 naturalists, and have printed papers of permanent value. Others, 

 although possessing a larger number of members, and enjoying 

 facilities for reference to public libraries and museums in the 

 towns of their birth, have never risen above mediocrity, and have 

 published little that was worth printing. 



We have no hesitation in placing the Essex Field Club in 

 the first category ; for although of comparatively recent founda- 

 tion (1880) it has already established a reputation, and takes a 

 leading position amongst local Natural History Societies. Two 

 volumes of 'Transactions' have been published, and the first 

 Part of Vol. III. is now before us. 



Of this Part 152 pages are devoted to original papers by 

 members of the Society and 80 pages to the journal of pro- 

 ceedings at ordinary, field, and other meetings, besides two 

 Appendices ; so that the annual volume, as may be supposed, is 

 one of no mean proportions. 



The contents are of a tolerably varied character. In the 

 present part we find an excellent account of the ancient fauna of 

 Essex, by Dr. Woodward, with ten illustrations ; a list of the 

 Macro-Lepidoptera around Maldon, by G. H. Raynor ; a paper on 

 Dene-holes, by T. V. Holmes ; Mr. Meldola's Presidential Address 

 on Modern Evolution ; an obituary memoir of the late Sir Antonio 

 Brady; a paper on Primaeval Man in the Valley of the Lea, by 

 Worthington Smith, with twenty-four woodcuts ; and another on 

 the species of the genus Primula in Essex, by R. M. Christy. In 

 addition to these there are a number of shorter papers, all of 

 more or less interest to specialists. 



The Journal of the Society contains, amongst other things, 

 a full record of its proceedings in relation to the conservation of 

 Epping Forest, in regard to which the Essex Field Club (mainly 

 through the instrumentality of its energetic Honorary Secretary, 

 Mr. W. Cole) played a very effectual part. These local records 

 will some day form an important chapter in the history of Epping 

 Forest. 





