NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 425 



and all animals sometimes indulge in is here represented by an 

 interesting fact. A Heron was killed in a field close by a stream, 

 and its crop was found to be filled with Field Mice. This volume 

 is full of " natural history " facts and observations, and is one of 

 the few enumerations of a fauna which, apart from its scientific 

 value, can be read with absolute pleasure. It refers to 198 

 species of birds. 



Cambridge Natural History. Vol. VI. Insects : Part II. By 

 David Sharp, M.A., M.B., &c. Macmillan & Co. Limited. 



This is the second instalment and completion of an important 

 contribution to a knowledge of entomology, by Dr. Sharp. The 

 present volume includes the continuation of the Hymenoptera, 

 Coleoptera, Strepsiptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera, Aphaniptera, 

 Thysanoptera, Hemiptera, and Anoplura. The most distinctive 

 contribution is that relating to the Coleoptera, an order to which 

 the author has mostly devoted his time, and on which he is 

 recognized as a considerable authority. The Coleoptera have 

 long been classified in a somewhat archaic, if convenient, manner, 

 and we are glad to see here a break from old tradition and a new 

 arrangement proposed, commencing with the Lamellicornia, 

 though these are separated from the Clavicornia by the Adephaga, 

 a proposition which will probably be a more disturbing factor 

 with many Coleopterists. These pages, however, are not the 

 place for so purely a technical discussion, though the careful 

 consideration of all proposed systems is generally pregnant to a 

 further knowledge of the creatures on which such propositions 

 are founded. 



With the other orders much useful information abounds, 

 though of course these lack the essential imprimatur which the 

 special knowledge of the author gives to his treatment of the 

 Coleoptera. The authorities quoted are naturally more selective 

 than comprehensive, and although many references will be gladly 

 appreciated by workers at these groups, the absence of other 

 references is sometimes very accentuated. 



We read that the number of described species of butterflies 

 is probably about 13,000. Forty years ago the number known 

 was not more than one-third or one-fourth of what it is at 



