REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 191 



^g^EYIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. 



The Butterflies of the British Isles, by Richard South, F.E.S. 

 [200pp., with 127 plates, and 27 figures. Published by F. Warne 

 and Co., Bedford Street, W.C. Price 6s. net.] . — One looks care- 

 fully through this tastefully arranged little book, and is reminded 

 forcibly of the old Biblical proverb — " Ye cannot serve God and 

 Mammon." It is evident that the writer has done his task exceedingly 

 well, equally evident that the limitations of the task have been 

 determined by the publishers who have to sell the book. The result 

 is an elementary text-book for beginners, pleasantly written, accurate as 

 far as it goes, with almost everything rigidly expunged that makes for 

 anything in the nature of deeper study. Except in comparatively 

 rare instances, even the names of well-known varieties are taboo ; the 

 description of the egg, larva and pupa, often occupies less than half of 

 a small page altogether, and the full descriptive matter concerning some 

 of our best-known species, e.//., Hesperia malvae, Xisoniades tar/es, etc., 

 occupies little over a small page of letterpress, whilst the longer accounts 

 rarely amount to more than three pages. We therefore, feel inclined to 

 question the publishers' statement that — ■" in spite of its small size and 

 moderate price — this is the most complete and up-to-date w^ork on the 

 British butterflies." From the writer of this paragraph we should 

 require two definitions (1) What is meant by "most complete"? (2) 

 What is meant by " up-to-date " ? And after obtaining these definitions, 

 we should ask him what he knows about existent works on British 

 butterflies. The statement is unfair to the author, because the critic 

 looks for much more than the author has been allowed to give him, and 

 finds much less than he expects. We feel sure that none would be 

 readier than the author to acknowledge that " as the most complete and 

 up-to-date work on British butterflies," the book has no standing what- 

 ever. As an exceedingly well-written book for beginners, however, who 

 want to know little, but that little accurately, the book is very well done. 

 So far then the book has very little, if any, claim on advanced lepidopter- 

 ists. But there is another side to this vokime. The publishers say that 

 " pictorially, the volume stands as the most profusely illustrated work 

 on British butterflies." Here we agree with them. The book is, not 

 only profusely, but well, illustrated, and to say that some of the coloured 

 plates fail, is only to state that the three-coloured process is not 

 absolutely perfect. No butterfly book, except those wonderful German 

 productions (with marvellous plates and rubbishy letterpress), can be 

 compared with this in respect to illustration, and, for accuracy, if 

 not for finish, we should place this volume well in line. Some of 

 the coloured plates are really first class, and the black and white are 

 more than passably good. The copied drawings of some of the eggs, 

 larvffi and pup®, are very well done, others are more or less 

 diagrammatic, particularly with regard to the tubercular structures in 

 the larvae, and in no wise to be compared with the delightfully real 

 production of Pararge meyaera on p. 123, but even then, apart from 

 actually photographing each stage separately, an impossible task unless 

 publication were delayed almost indefinitely, the best has evidently 

 been obtained out of the material to hand. For the illustrations, the 

 more advanced lepidopterist must buy this work, and his more advanced 

 knowledge will enable him to make use of those figures of rare 

 aberrations about which the letterpress is sometimes hopelessly silent. 

 Accepting the book for what it is (and not for what the publishers say 



