NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 359 



notoriety. Such an one appears as " Old Mowl," an upland 

 rover, whose remarks on the Viper are worth reproduction : — 

 "What he knew for a fact, however, was that one Viper would 

 sometimes devour another; for he had seen lying among the 

 furrows of a heath-bordered field a full-grown Viper with the tail 

 of a smaller one protruding from its mouth. He was inclined to 

 believe that occasional acts of cannibalism might be in part 

 responsible for the belief that Vipers swallowed their young when 

 danger threatened them." Another worthy, described as " Old 

 Ben," a marshman, possessed much Cuckoo-lore based on 

 personal observation, and he stated that, as a rule, " one or 

 more of the foster-parent's eggs were removed by the Cuckoo 

 when she placed her own egg in the nest. Once, indeed, he had 

 known one Cuckoo to remove another Cuckoo's egg from a 

 Titlark's nest, and drop it on the ' wall ' on the border of the 

 fen." 



Mr. Dutt's book will be read with pleasure by all naturalists 

 who are interested in East Anglian zoology. 



Illustrations of British Bloodsucking Flies. With Notes by 

 Ernest Edward Austen. Published by order of the 

 Trustees of the British Museum. 



The number of blood-sucking flies found in the British 

 Islands, so far as present knowledge will allow a computation to 

 be made, is about seventy-four, comprised in a dipterous fauna 

 of some 2700 to 3000 species. Many of them have a distinct 

 relation to human disease, particularly species belonging to the 

 genus Anophiles with ague. The authorities of the British 

 Museum had commissioned Mr. A. J. Engel Terzi to provide 

 coloured drawings of these predaceous flies for exhibition in the 

 North Hall of our great institution, and it was felt that these 

 admirable figures migh be reproduced in book form, accompanied 

 by a descriptive text which Mr. Austen has ably contributed. 

 We thus possess a non-technical monograph of a number of 

 dipterous insects, and this will be alike welcomed by naturalists, 

 medical men, and rearers of stock in these islands, and probably 

 farther afield. The British distribution of these insects is given, 

 and much should be added by other collectors and observers. The 



