154 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



from the level of the Kanara coast of India in lat. 14° N. to Addu 

 Atoll in lat. 0° 40' S. Mr. Gardiner has exhaustively described 

 these atolls, and has entered fully on the much disputed question 

 of coral formations ; in this discussion he has relied very largely 

 on his own observations, and in perusing the statement of his 

 views the reader will find a mass of original observations on the 

 life-histories of many marine organisms. 



A considerable number of naturalists have combined to work 

 out the collection, and, as a rule, their contributions are of a 

 more generally biological or philosophical character than bare 

 enumerations of genera and species. We may instance Dr. 

 MacMunn's paper " On the Pigments of certain Corals," in which 

 a conclusion is arrived at that as the dark pigments when in 

 solution have the property of arresting the ultra-violet and violet 

 rays of light, they may probably act as a screen, protecting the 

 delicate organisms from the irritating effects of the rays of short 

 wave-length, and in this way be of considerable physiological 

 importance. In Mr. Borradaile's contribution on " Marine 

 Crustaceans," the reader will find some pregnant remarks on 

 " Varieties and Species," in which conclusions are reached 

 somewhat on the same plane as those promulgated at about the 

 same time by Mr. Bateson. These communications must be 

 taken as representing the main scope and method of other 

 valuable memoirs by different writers, to which our space will 

 not allow further reference to be made ; and no reader or 

 student will fail to be struck with the advanced biologic method 

 that permeates the pages throughout. 



Catalogue of the Noctuidce in the Collection of the British Museum. 

 By Sir Geoege F. Hampson, Bart. Published by the 

 Trustees of the British Museum. 



This constitutes the fifth volume of the " Lepidoptera Pha- 

 lsense," and is devoted to the Hadenince, the second of the fifteen 

 subfamilies of the Noctuidce, and contains the descriptions of 

 946 species belonging to 78 genera. 



Should the author complete this great publication — as we 

 hope he will — the work of a lifetime will have been expended in 

 the production of a classic in Lepidoptera. Only those who 



