NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. ib 
spurs, and a long spine sticking out of each knee, and the hind wings 
banded with pale yellow (this was found in a house at Chelsea); and 
Copiophora brevicornis, a green insect not unlike our common Great 
Green Grasshopper, but with a long pointed snout like a triangular 
spear-head, and a long straight ovipositor twice as long as the body. 
It is a South American insect, but is sometimes found in England 
in botanic gardens.—W. I’. Kirpy (British Museum). 


NOLICHS OF NEW BOOKS. 
A Monograph of the British Annelids. Polycheta (Vol. II. pt. 1). 
Nephthydide to Sylide. By Wiuuiam CarmicHari McInrosu, 
M.D. Edin., &e. Ray Society. 1908. 
Tuis beautiful monograph is a worthy example of the good 
work of Prof. McIntosh, and may be accepted as the type of 
what the Ray Society can and do publish. British Annelids are 
again enumerated and described by one who knows his subject 
and loves the work, and British zoology becomes a larger subject 
to many who scarcely realize, as they may from the gorgeous 
plates in this volume, that, in the words of the author, not a 
few—for example, in the Phyllodocide, Ilesionide, and Syllide— 
are amongst the most beautifully ornamented invertebrates ; 
*‘indeed, many vie with the gaudy tints of butterflies and birds, 
or the burnished splendour of beetles.” 
As regards classification, Prof. McIntosh is one who thinks 
for himself, and does not consider himself-bound to follow the 
classificatory propositions of others. As he writes:— ‘‘ The 
Polycheta, indeed, do not lend themselves readily to the syste- 
matist, and it is safer at present to place the families in series 
according to their natural and structural relationships, reserving 
further consideration of the subject for the summary.’ How 
many a monographer of other animals has acquired this experi- 
ence! He often commences with a classification generally not 
his own, and finds it wither and perish as his work progresses ; 
an alternative scheme is then too late, and he must struggle on 
