4978 Notices of New Books. 



These are fair examples of the errors which have crept into this 

 useful book, as a uatural consequence of trusting too implicitly the 

 statements of others ; they will not impede the course of the student 

 so much as they annoy the more experienced reader, for it is utterly 

 impossible for the beginner not to reap an abundant harvest of sound 

 knowledge from Mr. Jones's volume, and although I have attempted 

 candidly to explain that errors are to be detected, they are neither so 

 numerous nor so important, as to detract materially from the value of 

 a volume which has been produced at great cost, and which is most 

 profusely and admirably illustrated. 



' The Entomologist's Annual for 1856.' London : Van Voorst. 1856. 

 12mo, 174 pp. letter-press ; one coloured Plate : price 2s. 6d. 



Most of my readers are already aware that the 'Entomologist's 

 Annual' has again appeared ; and not a few of them already possess it 

 through the instrumentality of the editor of the ' Zoologist.' In several 

 particulars it is an improvement on its predecessor; but in many 

 respects it is obnoxious to the same objection, viz. that it seems to 

 strain at elevating Entomology above its rank in the Catalogue of 

 Sciences, and Tinearism above its rank in the science of Entomology : 

 indeed there seems not a little danger of Tinearism becoming in itself 

 a science whose professors regard any other knowledge as superfluous. 



The contents of the 'Annual' are so well known to the readers of 

 the ' Zoologist,' through advertisements on its wrapper, that I need not 

 formally recapitulate them. A new feature, and a pleasant one, is the 

 list of Entomologists, and this, though perhaps unintentionally, is the 

 most amusing chapter in the book : there is something quite diverting 

 in the way in which the Misters and the Esquires are portioned out. 

 Thus, Edward Newman, a printer on a very small scale, in one of the 

 narrowest and dirtiest streets in London, is an Esquire, and many of 

 his congeners enjoy a like dignity ; whilst F. T. Hudson, the dis- 

 tinguished optician, of Stockwell Street, Greenwich, W. P. Hatfield, 

 the Newark chemist, and many others of like standing, are plain 

 Misters. A step lower still in this digested list are Entomologists 

 who have no title at all ; the examples are John Brown, E. Bull, 

 Robert Drane, J. Fox, Finley Fraser, G. Freason, Edmund Graham, 

 C. S. Gregson, William Harrison, George Hodge, James Holt, 

 S. Keetley, S. Lineker, S. H. Riley, T. Riley, J. L. Rix, R. Slater, 

 W. Spencer, Joseph Stafford and W. C. Unwin ; these gentlemen are 

 neither Misters nor Esquires: what have they done to be thus denuded 

 of prefix and affix ? perhaps, however, they are members of the Society 



