206 JOURNAL. BOMB A Y NA TOR A L HISTOR Y SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



type collection of material to work on. All these are requisites not available- 

 to the ordinary individual. There is no wish or intention of detracting from the 

 worth of the work done by him in the compilation of the book under review, 

 but he has had exceptional opportunities, and he has produced an exceptionally" 

 able treatise. 



From the first page to the last " Indian Insect Life " is as perfect a work as- 

 could be expected with the knowledge of the subject dealt with attained up to' 

 the present day. It is replete with information imparted in a pleasant 

 and lucid style and contains a great amount of matter which in the past has 

 been only available to the very few. The subject dealt with is a very large 

 one and it is surprising how the author has managed to get all the facts and 

 observations he has alluded to into the space he has allowed himself. The 

 book is, naturally, largely a compilation, as can only be, but there are many 

 original observations and notes incorporated in it and the fact that all the 

 material has been collected in a short six years reflects infinite credit on the 

 writer and those who have helped him. 



It is a book of some 800 beautifully printed pages of good stout paper, and' 

 536 text-figures besides 84 full page plates of which a great number are coloured. 

 There is a map of India as Frontispiece showing the region dealt with which, 

 we are informed, is the Tropical portion only or the " Plains." The cover is 

 pretty and original, simple but very suitable. The binding, however, is bad - 

 it is not strong enough and the pages break loose and come out. This is 

 probably the result of weight and it would have been better had the book 

 been issued in two volumes instead of one. It would have been a great deal' 

 handier also were it of smaller size notwithstanding that this would have 

 interfered with the area of the fine plates ; but the advantage gained ini 

 convenience of handling would have perhaps more than compensated for this. 

 The objection to reduced plates could have been got over by multiplying their 

 number though this would have of course increased the cost of production. 

 The final result might, however, have been more satisfactory in that there 

 would probably have been a greater sale for the work in the more convenient 

 form. The wider circulation it has the better for everybody. 



The text-figures are uniformly good and, in the majority of cases, they 

 represent typical insects, their eggs, larvae, cocoons, nests, &c, and should be of 

 considerable use to those desirous of learning to distinguish between the dif- 

 ferent forms. The plates, both coloured and uncoloured are on the whole 

 also good ; some of them are excellent and should be a great help to the 

 beginner. They represent insects in all stages, many of them magnified, their 

 eggs, larvae, chrysalides, imagines, cocoons and foodplants ; in many cases 

 accompanied by the parasites characteristic of each. The plate of lepidopter- 

 ous larvae (XXVIII) contains caterpillars of some common types of butterflies 

 and moths some of which have been apparently wrongly identified. For 

 example, the larva No. 1 is given as that of Junonia orithya while it is 

 evidently that of Hypolwmas holina: both are nymphaline but differ in 





