NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 75 



The caterpillars of the Privet Hawk -moth, Sphinx ligustri, 

 and of the Puss-moth, Dicranura vinula, are fairly well described, 

 sufficiently so, at least, for identification. 



Amongst some of the fables retailed we find, of course, the 

 story of the supposed generation of Barnacle Geese from the 

 cirrhiped Lepus anatifera, as noted by Du Bartas : — 



" So rotten planks of broken ships do change to barnacles," 



and by Gerard, in his ■ Herbal,' and Camden, in his ' Britannia.' 

 So also we note the allusion to the belief that " Hares change 

 sexes" (i. p. 173). 



The distribution of the Grayling in English rivers is discussed 

 (i. p. 183), with a note elucidating the subject, and an interesting 

 point is raised (p. 188) as to when the Salmon became extinct 

 in the Thames. The vexed questions affecting the repro- 

 duction of Eels, and of Snakes swallowing their young in time of 

 danger, are fully dealt with in foot-notes by the editor (ii. p. 2, 

 and i. p. 203), and, in view of the authorities quoted and evidence 

 adduced, may be said to set these matters at rest. 



As to the plants, the notes furnished on lady-smocks and 

 culver-keys (ii. 28), candocks (ii. 63), willow-catkins (ii. 185), 

 reates, roits, or water-crowfoot (ii. 63), pickerel-weed (i. 194, 204), 

 hops (i. 215), and many other species, show that in this old 

 fishing-book the botanist may find almost as much to entertain 

 him as the zoologist. 



It is a curious and remarkable fact that Izaak Walton no- 

 where quotes Shakespeare, although the latter died in 1616, and 

 the first folio edition of his plays was published in 1623, or thirty 

 years before the appearance of ■ The Complete Angler.' 



This omission cannot be due to the absence of allusions to 

 fish and fishing by the bard of Avon, for Walton might have 

 referred to * Twelfth Night' (ii. 5), where Maria, on the appearance 

 of Malvolio, exclaims, " Here comes the Trout that must be caught 

 with tickling," and to the song of Caliban in ' The Tempest' (ii. 

 2), " No more dams I'll make for fish," as well as to the lines in 

 4 Much Ado' (iii. 1) :— 



" The pleasantest angling is to see the fish 

 Cut with her golden oars the silver stream, 

 And greedily devour the treacherous bait," 



