844 General Notes. 
will do a great deal of good. Many teachers, we know, will heave 
a sigh of relief upon seeing it, and we have no doubt but that its 
sales will be gratifying both to the author and to the clear-sighted 
publishers. 
AN INTRODUCTION TO EnromoLtogy.—By the time this 
number of the NATURALIST reaches its readers, the first half of an 
elementary text-book of Entomology, prepared by the editor of 
this department, will have been published.! This part includes the 
grammar of the science, and half of the systematic part. It con- 
tains many original illustrations, drawn and engraved by Mrs. 
Comstock. The following extract from the preface of this work 
will indicate the author’s plan of treatment of the subject: 
“This work has been prepared to meet the demand for a text- 
book which shall enable students to acquire a thorough knowledge 
of the elementary principles of Entomology, and to classify insects 
by means of analytical keys similar to those used in Botany. 4 
means of the keys the student can readily determine to what family 
any insect of which he has a specimen belongs. In many cases 
tables of genera are also given, and the more common or conspicu- 
ous species in each family have been described. ; 
“ Although much pains has been taken to render easy the classi- 
fication of specimens, an effort has been made to give the mere - 
determination of the names of insects a very subordinate place. 
The groups of insects have been fully characterized, so that their 
relative affinities may be learned, and much space has been given 
to accounts of the habits and transformations of the forms described. 
As the needs of agricultural students have been kept constantly in 
view, those species that are of economic importance have been 
described as fully as practicable, and particular attention has been 
given to descriptions of the methods of destroying those that are 
noxious, or of preventing their ravages. Siegen 
“The pronunciation of the technical terms has been indicated 
by marking the accented vowel, and at the same time indicating 
its length when the term is pronounced as an English word.” 
Synopsis or Norra AmeERIcAN Drerera.—All North 
American students of Entomology will welcome the work just 
published by Dr. Williston? This work consists chiefly of analyti 
cal keys and characterizations of families. There is an introduc 
ited Biates 
ornell University, and formerly Uni 
by the author, Tihao art I. $2.00. 
rth 
with on ak and new species, 1878-1888, by Samuel W. Williston. 
, pp. 84. ew Haven, J. T. Hataway. $1.00. 
