ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 99 



excellent and satisfactory as the volume before us. Dr. Weed has selected some five and 

 twenty more or less familiar insects, and in a pleasant manner has given some account 

 of their life histories. The chapters are quite independent of each other and arranged 

 in no particular order ; the book may therefore be opened at random, and the sketch 

 that may be hit upon read without any detriment to the continuity of the work. Some 

 of them which deal with such creatures as the leaf miners are naturally very brief 

 since so little is known about these tiny foes to vegetation, but of other species which 

 have been subjects of particular study on the part of the author we find long and full 

 descriptions. Among the latter may be mentioned the interesting account of the 

 hibernation of aphides, the chapter on "harvest spiders, the "army worm," etc. Any- 

 one, young or old, who has any desire to read about the wonderful creatures that inhabit 

 the world and to know something about their modes of life cannot fail to be pleased with 

 this book, and to be led on we should hope to make his own observations of their curious 

 habits and strange doings. The volume is handsomely illustrated with twenty-one full 

 page plates and nearly 100 figures in the text. C. J. S. B, 



Insects and Spiders : Their Structure, Life Histories and Habits. By J. W. Tutt. 1 

 vol., pp. 116, (1 shilling). London : George Gill &^Sons, Warwick Lane, E.C.. 



In the annual report of the Entomological Society of Ontario for 1896 much atten- 

 tion was paid to the subject of teaching natural history, and especially entomology, in 

 schools, and the desire was expressed that some hand book might be drawn up for the 

 assistance of teachers in rural schools. The volume before us is the very book that is 

 needed, if only it dealt with Canadian instead of British insects. In England " Object 

 lessons " are a compulsory part of the curriculum in elementary schools, and the teachers 

 are required to give their pupils a series of simple lessons " adapted to cultivate habits 

 of exact observation, statement and reasoning." These lessons are to be " on objects and 

 on the phenomena of nature and of common life," and a wide discretion is thus left in 

 the hands of the teacher. In the country schools of Ontario no subject could be more 

 useful than the study in this way of the commonest species of injurious and beneficial 

 insects, and no subject is likely to compare with it in interesting the pupils. A further 

 advantage is the ease with which specimens can be obtained and their life histories 

 traced. Mr. Tutt's volume is admirably adapted for the use of teachers in providing 

 lessons of this kind. After giving a general account of the external structure of insects, 

 their internal organs and metamorphoses, he devotes the " lessons " to typical common 

 species of each order, giving similar particulars regarding the individuals and any general 

 facts of interest that bear upon them. Each instct treated of is also illustrated with 

 plates and wood cuts. It is not, however, a text- book for pupils, but is meant for the 

 instruction and equipment of the teachers, affording them an excellent foundation upon 

 which to frame the instructions they are to give to those committed to their charge. 



C. J. S. B. 



