90 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



breeding of Odonata is attended with more difficulty than that of 

 Lepidoptera, and a volume like the present is an incentive to 

 that task, and is also provocative to observation. 



" Of recent Dragonflies Linnaeus knew only fifty-six species in 

 the middle of last century, Baron de Selys Longchamps gave 1344 

 as the total in 1871. In 1890 Kirby could bring the list up to 

 1800, and thought that the number might be quadrupled, if only 

 the group were more thoroughly worked. The total for Europe 

 is just over a hundred, while in Britain there are forty." Of 

 these last Mr. Lucas considers two as being synonymic, and this 

 brings the number — including occasional visitors — to thirty-nine. 



Many modern authorities now either treat the Odonata as a dis- 

 tinct order, or as a section of the Orthoptera ; Mr. Lucas decides 

 still to regard the Dragonflies as part of the Neuroptera. Without 

 being a specialist in the study of these insects, he seems to have 

 read up the literature with trouble and care, and to have consulted 

 the records of captures sufficiently to give a good account of the 

 distribution of each species in Britain. The illustrations leave 

 little to be desired ; the sexes of each species are portrayed in 

 coloured plates, while many good figures ornament the text. In 

 a purely entomological publication — which this Journal is not — 

 many points might be discussed which are dealt with in the 

 volume ; it sufficeth us to regard it as a contribution to British 

 Zoology which was wanted, which will be welcomed by most 

 naturalists, and which has been produced in a handsome and 

 thorough manner. 



Recent Foraminifera : a Descriptive Catalogue of Specimens 

 dredged by the U.S. Fish Com. Steamer 'Albatross.' By 

 James N. Flint, M.D., U.S.N. Washington; Government 

 Printing Office. 



This publication is the zoological strength of the Report of 

 the U.S. National Museum for the year ending June 30th, 1897, 

 and which hasjust been printed and received. 



We read that material from above one hundred and twenty- 

 five stations has been carefully studied, and specimens from 

 more than a hundred localities have been preserved and iden- 

 tified. Of these localities, fifty-eight are in the North Atlantic 



