143 



Smith's ' History of the British Bees.'' 



Mr. Smith's ' History of the British Bees,' another of the Museum 

 Catalogues, is the best Entomological Monograph in the English 

 language. How ^e\\ could have ventured on a subject where a Kirby 

 had preoccupied the ground with such unquestionable success ! The 

 secret of Mr. Smith's still greater success is the result of combined 

 causes: in the first place the celebrated ' Monographia' is deficient 

 in the association of the sexes, a point on which Mr. Smith is parti- 

 cularly strong, his knowledge being the result of indefatigable obser- 

 vation on the living bees : secondly, the Kirbyan specimens, now in 

 our possession, were comparatively {ew in number, and generally 

 speaking in such a faded and dilapidated condition that it seems a 

 perfect marvel that minute and really classical descriptions could ever 

 have been drawn up from such indifferent materials ; Mr. Smith, on 

 the contrary, has an almost unlimited access to materials, for not only 

 his own but other cabinets may be said to be redundant with speci- 

 mens in the highest possible state of preservation : lastly, Mr. Smith 

 is peculiarly happy on the subject of economy, his details being 

 ample and precise, his generalisations masterly and lucid : in this 

 respect the ' Monographia' is deficient, the economy of many para- 

 sitic species being at that early period altogether unknown. It is a 

 threadbare and commonplace axiom that "comparisons are odious;" 

 but in this case surely it is not so, and, were the father of Entomology 

 in Britain still amongst us and with us, he would be the first to render 

 the just mede of praise to a pujnl who bids fair to transcend the 

 master's excellence. 



' Transactions of the Linneaa Society.' 



The Linnean Society has published one Part of its ' Transactions,' 

 containing one entomological paper, intituled a " Monograph of the 

 Leucosiadai, with Observations on the Relations, Structure, Habits 

 and Distribution of the Family ; a Revision of the Generic Charac- 

 ters ; and Descriptions of New Genera and Species. By Thomas 

 Bell, President." This family, which Professor Bell considers as the 

 most isolated among the decapod Crustacea, contained up to the time 

 of his Monograph but twenty-nine species: these are described by 

 Milne-Edwards, in his recent admirable volume on Crustacea; by De 

 Haan, in his history of the Crustacea of Japan ; and by Messrs. Adams 

 and White, in their descriptions of the Crustacea collected in the 



