236 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



[December 



REVIEWS. 



AN ILLUSTRATED HANDBOOK OF BRITISH 

 DRAGONFLIES, 



BY 



THE EDITOR OF THE NATURALIST'S GAZETTE. 



This useful little work will do much, to popularize the study of 

 this neglected, though interesting and compact group of insects. The 

 descriptions are clear, intelligible, and fairly comprehensive, but it is 

 to be regretted that a little more trouble was not taken in its com- 

 pilation. 



The nomenclature agrees in the main with that of Mr. McLach- 

 lan's Catalogue, but the utter absence of synonymy is a serious defect, 

 as it hinders any reference to the old standard works of Charpentier 

 and Evans, or even with those of Selys and Hagen. 



There is no index, nor even a list of species, and the records have, 

 apparently, not been searched down to date. Thus, to take a few 

 instances from the rarer species, the re-discovery by Mr. H. Goss of 

 Oxygaster Curttsii in 1878, and again in 1886, is not alluded to. The 

 record of Somatochlora Metallica in Strathglass, Invernesshire, is also 

 left out, while no reason is assigned for the total omission of its con- 

 gener, 5. Artica. Mr. McLachlan's useful notes on our British species, 

 in the E.M.M., XX., p. 217, and Baron Selys' Longchamp revision of 

 our species, in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Series I., 

 Vol. 18, p. 217, are never even referred to. The illustrations moreover 

 are mostly familiar ; thus the anatomical plate on page 83, and the 

 explanation of technical terms, are taken bodily from Dr. Hagen's 

 paper in the Entomologists' Annual for 1857, with but the scantiest 

 acknowledgment. The frontispiece is from Cassell's " Short Studies 

 from Nature " and some of the few other illustrations are from Dun- 

 can's Edition of " Figaiers Insect World." No doubt the author had 

 full permission to use these plates, _but we think that their source 

 should have been indicated. 



It is very inconvenient that a book published by an anonymous 

 author, even though his name is an open secret, should have so many 

 " var Mihi " in it as it will render future reference singularly difficult, 



