NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 197 



"study" must be a veritable "Scotland Yard" for insect de- 

 predators. Here an account is kept of all previous convictions, 

 and the names, habits, and life-histories of all these agricultural 

 criminals are accurately recorded and regularly published, while 

 the most speedy and convenient methods for their destruction are 

 studied and advised. We fear, however, that these annual reports 

 are not sufficiently procured by our agriculturists, fruit-growers, 

 and foresters, to whom they should prove indispensable ; while 

 all who take an interest in a garden — " and who loves a garden 

 loves a greenhouse too" — will find aid in its pages to resist the 

 attacks of many enemies. We sometimes scarcely estimate the 

 size of these insect hordes which ravage our crops. One of Miss 

 Ormerod's correspondents, a head-schoolmaster, relates that 

 during the late season, when the larvae of White Cabbage 

 Butterflies made dreadful havoc among the cabbages and similar 

 plants, he put two boys at a time during their dinner-hour, in 

 his small garden of about a quarter of an acre, with a net to catch 

 these butterflies, of which in seven days they caught and killed no 

 fewer than 834, Again, from two hundred and forty plants the 

 boys gathered more than 5000 caterpillars. 



Insects alone do not curtail Miss Ormerod's work, and in this 

 issue we have a most interesting account of the Snail-Slug 

 (Testacella haliotidea) , an animal which is labelled (Beneficial) 

 " ridding us of small ground vermin ; they are wholly carnivorous, 

 and prey chiefly on Earthworms, but also on Slugs and Snails, 

 and even on each other." 



