4348 Notices of New Books. 



is eaten slightly roasted or fried. It is not by any means so common 

 in the Amazon as the other edible insects ; and in fact, I never saw 

 it eaten, or ate it myself, but once. It is called muxeiwa by the 

 Indians. 



" The Apterous insect which is eaten by the South-American In- 

 dians, more, I presume, as a delicacy than as an article of food, is a 

 species of Pediculus which inhabits the heads of that variety of man- 

 kind, and is probably a distinct species from that of our own country. 

 The method of capturing and devouring this insect is exactly the same 

 as that which every one has seen adopted by the monkeys at the gar- 

 dens of the Zoological Society. A couple of Indian belles will often 

 devote a spare half-hour to entomological researches in each other's 

 glossy tresses, every capture being immediately transferred, with much 

 gusto, to the mouth of the operator." — P. 242. 



The butterflies described by Mr. Hewitson are Erycina Saundersii, 

 Acraea Amida, Papilio Conon, Haetera Hortona, Haetera Hypesia, 

 and Dircenna Duillia : all of them are very beautifully figured. 



The papers by Mr. Smith on Melittobia, and by Mr. Wallace on 

 the butterflies of the Amazon, are replete with interest. 



1 Monograph of the Pst/chida.' By M. Bruand. 



This admirable Monograph forms part of the ' Memoires de la 

 Societe libre d'Emulation du Doubs,' but we learn from the wrapper 

 that it is also published separately, with the plates either coloured or 

 plain ; copies of the former are charged 7 francs each, of the latter, 9 

 francs each. 



This is one of those careful and elaborate treatises which are now 

 becoming common on continental Europe, but which are unfortu- 

 nately so rare here. Probably a cause for this may be found in the 

 paucity of students here ; for, with a very few exceptions, all mono- 

 graphs published in this country entail so large a pecuniary loss on 

 their proprietors, that it can scarcely be a matter of surprise that they 

 should be few in number and imperfect in execution. May we not, 

 however, as authors, seek in ourselves a cause for this want of suc- 

 cess ? May we not fairly attribute the want of sale to the imperfec- 

 tion of our own handy work ? Is it not notoriously the case, that when 

 a painstaking man, who is master of his subject, undertakes such a 

 monograph, that it is highly remunerative ? As monographs, those 



