NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 277 



method. Errors there must be, and the best catalogue is one in 

 which these are fewest ; to break the ground is work of the 

 pioneer, as is largely the case with this publication, and it greatly 

 assists the student, and what is more, though of far less value, 

 gives scope and action to the uneasy soul of the critic. We 

 believe that these volumes will do as much for the study of the 

 Orthoptera as the same author's ' Synonymic Catalogue of 

 Diurnal Lepidoptera' (published in 1871) did for those who 

 worked at exotic butterflies. But after all no one can properly 

 appraise the value of a catalogue till he has used and worked 

 with it for some period of time ; reviews and criticisms on 

 these works when first published, often by writers unfamiliar 

 with the particular phase of animal life to which they refer, 

 must necessarily be very near the realm of bathos. That, 

 however, these three volumes of Mr. Kirby will maintain their 

 standard with orthopterous students is the conviction, at least, 

 of the writer of this notice. 



