278 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



and arrive at the Pliocene Pithecanthropus erectus, we feel that 

 we are contemplating an era of which as yet so little is known, 

 and of which so much more must yet be told. The chances 

 against finding organic remains are innumerable ; " every item of 

 knowledge acquired may indeed be literally described as owing to 

 a chapter of accidents"; to the palaeontologist the knowledge of 

 the past must often seem to be as carefully guarded as the portals 

 of the future. And yet, with all the " imperfection of the geo- 

 logical record," palseontological interpreters — among whom will 

 always be mentioned Owen and Marsh — have given a knowledge 

 which may without offence be designated as a revelation. 



With the fascination incidental to the study of a past era 

 and an unseen fauna, caution is a first and last word, in fact, the 

 alpha and omega of palseontological speculation. Mr. Woodward 

 is careful to explain that, " owing to the imperfection of the geo- 

 logical record and the incomplete exploration of most formations, 

 any statement now formulated may eventually prove to be quite 

 a partial account of the facts, and every conclusion must be more 

 or less provisional and tentative " ; while " the known facts of 

 geology are still too few to restore the life-provinces of the globe 

 at the various stages of its past history." This is a good book 

 for the zoological library; it may be, as the author modestly 

 suggests, "an elementary handbook," but at the same time it 

 conveys an indispensable information which by many zoologists 

 is necessarily possessed in a more than elementary manner. 



New Zealand Moths and Butterflies (Macro-Lepidoptera). By 

 G. V. Hudson, F.E.S. London : West, Newman & Co. 



The Butterflies and larger Moths of New Zealand have now 

 procured a satisfactory treatment, and by the aid of this fully 

 illustrated work it is possible to form a conception of the 

 interesting but modest lepidopteral fauna of u Te Ika a Maui." 

 In 1855 the missionary Richard Taylor, in his account of the 

 islands, gave us a few coloured figures of the butterflies and 

 moths found there ; Butler subsequently figured the Rhopalocera, 

 whilst Meyrick has described and enumerated very many of the 

 Heterocera, so that the time was ripe for a fully illustrated 



