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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST 



[Vol. XL 



463 is Dastjllis sacrator; Fig. 500 is Sepedon fuscipennis not fasci- 

 pennis; Plate 12, Fig. 3, is SyncJiloe rrakirtii not genutia; Plate 13, 

 Fig. 3 is an Elis sp.; Figs. 681 and 682 undoubtedly represent the 

 same species. Although questioned, it is hard to account for Fig. 

 684, which belongs to an entirely different family; the male of Pele- 

 cinus polytumtor is figured in Packard's Guide to the Study of Insects. 



Following the chapters devoted to the descriptions of the various 

 orders is a very interesting chapter on insects and flowers in which 

 the pollination of various plants by insects is described. A chapter 

 on "Color and Pattern and their Uses" presents a subject open to 

 much criticism. There is a tendency to carry the so called " mimicry," 

 or preferably protective resemblance, beyond the limits of our every- 

 day walks in the fields and woods, i. e., to emphasize this feature by 

 selecting the most pronounced forms from the fauna of the world and 

 arranging them in museums regardless of their natural surroundings. 

 The "dead-leaf butterfly" (Kallima) is very effective arranged on a 

 twig among the dried leaves of the elm or beech, but when we read 

 that the butterfly usually alights on the trunk of the tree head down- 

 ward, the charm is broken. Our various species of Polygonia (Grapta) 

 and several groups of moths present fully as interesting examples of 

 protective resemblance. A very instructive and timely chapter is 

 devoted to insects and disease. The work concludes with an appen- 

 dix on collecting and rearing insects. 



C. W. J. 



Kingsley's Elements of Comparative Zoology.^ — In this second 

 edition of Kingsley's Elements of Comparative Zoology the most 

 marked changes from the first edition (1897) are due to a re- 

 arrangement, the descriptive part being separated from the labora- 

 tory directions and brought together to form the last two thirds of 

 the book, under the heading, in the table of contents, of "Systematic 

 Zoology." This plan, which is that adopted by the same author 

 in his Comparative Zoology of Vertebrates, would seem to be of 

 distinct pedagogical value owing to the confusion in the student's 

 mind arising from the discontinuity of the other arrangement. The 

 questions for a tabular comparison of the forms studied and the groups 

 to which they belong -— an especially valuable feature — have been 

 retained, and in a few cases somewhat extended. On page 108 there 

 is a repetition of questions (3 and 7) which should be corrected. 



L. J. C. 



iRiiigsley, J. S. Elements of Comparative Zoology. Second edition, revised. 

 New York, Henry Holt and Co., 1904. 8vo, x + 437 pp. 



