284 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



insects." Many observations have proved this, but many also 

 are lost through field naturalists being often unable to recognise 

 the species, nay, even the genus, of the insect whose economy or 

 traits they have observed. It is sometimes a modern habit to 

 decry the labours of the describer — in fact, species-monger is not 

 an unknown term — and the taxonomist is often looked upon as a 

 harmless enthusiast of the type of the " Scarabee " of Oliver 

 Wendell Holmes. But how can any philosophical observation be 

 recorded concerning a species which belongs to no nomenclature 

 and is outside a known classification ? Such a book as we 

 now notice becomes a positive boon as much to the observant 

 naturalist as to the future specialist. It is the code by which we 

 identify the creatures whose habits we study, or whose bodies 

 we preserve. 



The method of this volume is in accord with that of its pre- 

 decessors ; but "keys" are given, to species as well as to genera, 

 and of the last a typical illustration is always afforded. Four 

 coloured plates are appended, and we welcome a volume we 

 would gladly have possessed when sojourning years ago in the 

 region to which it refers. We can speak from sad experience of 

 how the portals of nature remain hidden by the absence of a 

 technical guide, and of how a good taxonomic volume is not a 

 hindrance, but frequently a positive necessity, to one who would 

 record his observations made in the field. 



The illustrations are from drawings by Horace Knight, and 

 the chromo-lithography is the work of West, Newman & Co. 





Investigations into Applied Nature. By William Wilson, Junior. 

 London : Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, & Co., 

 Limited. Aberdeen : John Rae Smith. 1890. 



This small volume consists mainly of various papers and 

 lectures contributed by the author to different institutions and 

 publications during the last decade, and comprise some of a 

 purely botanical and agricultural interest, and others of a zoolo- 

 gical nature. Mr. Wilson has evidently an extensive knowledge 

 of general agricultural and farming pursuits in Aberdeenshire, 

 and has also devoted no little observation to the general fauna 

 and flora of his county. Even under such a non-zoological 



