NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 231 



common cognitions ? The perusal of this book, with its altogether 

 charming illustrations, must tend to lead to a better under- 

 standing. One remark expresses the keystone to much modern 

 speculation : " No wild animal dies of old age. Its life has soon 

 or late a tragic end. It is only a question of how long it can 

 hold out against its foes." 



Report of Observations of Injurious Insects and Common Farm 

 Pests during the years 1897 and 1898. By Eleanor A. 

 Ormerod, F.E.Met.Soc, &c. Two Parts. Simpkin, 

 Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co., Limited. 



Since we noticed the Report for 1896, two more of these 

 annual contributions to economic entomology have appeared. 

 They are written with the same care and thoroughness as dis- 

 tinguished their predecessors, and exhibit the same voluntary 

 and enthusiastic devotion to the study which is likely, in a 

 material sense, to reward readers and students rather than 

 authoress. Two welcome announcements are made. A general 

 index to the long series of reports which have now been pub- 

 lished — twenty -two in all — will shortly be issued; and Miss 

 Ormerod has now secured the co-operation of Mr. Robert 

 Newstead, of the Grosvenor Museum, Chester, whose power of 

 microscopic observation and delineation, with a special knowledge 

 of the Coccidce r must prove of a helpful character. 



The work of Miss Ormerod is not confined to the publication 

 of these Reports, but is also engaged in the management of what 

 may be called a private consulting economic bureau on insect 

 pests and their depredations. In 1897, we read that the corre- 

 spondence " amounted approximately to about three thousand 

 letters received "; and as these may be considered as mostly in the 

 nature of enquiries, this scientific enterprise pursued privately by 

 one lady is probably unique. 



The Forest Fly (Hippobosca equina), the pernicious Horse 

 pest, whose presence up to 1895 was considered in this country 

 to be wholly confined to the New Forest or its vicinity, has now 

 been only too clearly demonstrated to have established itself in 

 the south of South Wales. Hay imported from South America 

 contains very frequently specimens of the Migratory Locust 



