358 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



seldom. We write thus because the author of this book is 

 really worth reading, and the difficulty of doing so to the most 

 parochial Anglican is not insurmountable. 



The lettering to the plates consists of Italian or local ter- 

 minology. This really affords a useful lesson. Some authors 

 are so inclined — even in these pages — to give British names only 

 for British birds, that they may by perusal of these cognomens 

 attain some conception of how local names appear to both 

 English and Italian readers. We certainly should not have 

 recognised our old friend the Bullfinch under the name of 

 " Ciuffolotto," and the need is accentuated of birds when re- 

 ferred to in print being called by their universal or scientific 

 cognomens, as the author has done in his text. 



This is a book worthy of a shelf on the line in every natura- 

 list's library, inciting frequent reference, but also demanding a 

 much stronger binding than the one in which it is issued. 



Descriptive Catalogue of the Coleoptera of South Africa. By 

 L. Peringuey, Assistant Director, South African Museum. 

 Trans. South African Philosophical Society, vol. xii. 



The publications of museums show by their subject-matters 

 the varying specialities pursued by the official personnel. For- 

 merly the South African Museum, when under the charge of 

 Mr. Trimen, was the seat of lepidopteral publication ; while the 

 advent of Mr. W. L. Sclater produced volumes on mammalogy 

 and ornithology. Now Mr. Peringuey has commenced a colossal 

 work for one man to achieve, and is publishing nothing less than 

 a descriptive catalogue of the South African Coleoptera, the last 

 instalment of which occupies no fewer than eight hundred and 

 ninety-six pages of vol. xii. of the Transactions of the South 

 African Philosophical Society. This is not only an energetic but 

 a courageous work for Mr. Peringuey to undertake away from 

 European collections and libraries, and we trust he may be 

 spared to complete his gigantic enterprise. A bare catalogue of 

 South African Coleoptera alone is a desideratum, but a descrip- 

 tive enumeration will place entomologists under an obligation, 

 and they will welcome a work to whose virtues they will be 

 wondrous kind, while to some unavoidable limitations they 

 must critically be a little blind. 



