280 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. 

 Edited by W. T. Blanford. Hymenoptera — Vol. II. — 

 Ants and Cuckoo-Wasps, by Lieut.-Col. C. T. Bingham. 

 Taylor & Francis. 



Dr. Blanford is to be congratulated on the steady issue 

 of his volumes ; of course no exact regularity can be maintained, 

 but the series of volumes already issued are an important con- 

 tribution to a knowledge of the fauna of British India. In an 

 age when biology demands philosophical conclusions, these books 

 play a prominent part, though they are as a rule purely technical. 

 A species must be known and recognized before any accurate 

 observation can be recorded about it, and therefore we must 

 cheerfully labour as descriptive hodmen before that golden age 

 arrives when the weary describerwill be at rest, and remembered 

 only as a worthy writer of necessary muniments. 



Col. Bingham has made the Indian Hymenoptera a special 

 study, and his book can therefore be received as authoritative. 

 It is on this ground that we feel sorry to read that he is now 

 leaving the Hymenoptera, about which so much is to be told, to 

 write the account of the Indian butterflies, about which more 

 is known. We trust, however, that he will complete both tasks. 



