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BOOK NOTICES, 

 * Notes on the Geology and Natural History of the County 



of Durham. — By Robert Calvert, of Bishop Auckland. Price Five Shillings. 

 Bishop Auckland ; printed by W. J. Cummins, Eagle Printing Works, 1884.' 

 8vo., 184 pages, with geological map and sections. 



These ' notes ^, as they are modestly termed, amount to a comprehensive 

 account of the more salient and striking features of the geology and of various 

 branches of the natural history of the county of Durham. There are sixteen 

 chapters, of which the first eight are devoted to the geology and physical geography, 

 the ninth deals with the mammalia, the tenth with the birds, the eleventh with the 

 reptiles, the twelfth with the fishes, the thirteenth with the buttei-flies, the four- 

 teenth with the moths, the fifteenth with the coleoptera, &c., and the last with the 

 botany. The work can hardly be called a fauna and flora of the county in the 

 widest sense, as the author has expressly limited himself to the conspicuous and 

 more readily-definable species of any group, and has thought it best to omit critical 

 forms and such as are difficult to distinguish from each other — such as, for instance, 

 those of Salix, Jjinais, and Luzitla in the flora, and nearly all the smaller species 

 of insects. As might be expected, we do not feel disposed to agree with such 

 omissions, except in cases where they have not received careful study. It is of 

 course preferable to omit rather than to mis-name. But as it is of the very 

 essence of a local fauna or flora that in it attention should be more par- 

 ticularly directed to the study of the minute variation of the forms which 

 occur within the area of investigation, we trust that Mr. Calvert's little volume 

 may be the means of stimulating Durham naturalists to further inquiry and to more 

 detailed and more minute investigation, and that the next work which is con- 

 structed upon the same lines may embody the results of such investigations. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The Watson Botanical Exchange Club — with commendable promptitude — has 

 issued its first report, the greater part of which is occupied by a list of desiderata 

 for 1885. The list of members comprises 35 names. Critical notes on the plants 

 which have already been received during the Club's — as yet — brief existence, are 

 also given, Mr. Arthur Bennett, F.L.S., being as referee responsible for these. 



>co< 



The list of Yorkshire Sawflies, to which Mr. Wilson's paper in this volume 

 makes so many additions, now numbers about 112 species. It is much to be 

 wished that more entomologists would take up and work out these insects and 

 their geographical range in the north of England. Paucity of literature on the 

 subject can hardly be pleaded as an excuse when we remember that Mr. Cameron's 

 valuable ' Monograph of the British Phytophagous Hymenoptera ' has appeared 

 under the auspices of the Ray Society, and also that the exhaustive French 

 monograph, published by M. Ed. Andre, which constitutes the first volume of his 

 ' Species des Hymenopteres d'Europe et d'Algerie ' is available, so that the litera- 

 ture of this interesting group may be regarded as in a tolerably satisfactory state. 



>ox 



The Cumberland Association for the Advancement of Literature and Science, 

 which has extended its range and altered its title so as to include Westmoreland 

 (why not have also included the detached or northern part of Lancashire and formed 

 a ' Lake District Association ' with a shorter title and a more natural and well- 

 defined area ?) has published the Ninth part of its Transactions, a bulky instalment 

 of about 250 pages, containing numerous papers and notes on the various subjects 

 included in its scope. Mr. J. C. Smith conti'ibutes a list of Penrith district plants. 

 Miss Donald some notes on carboniferous gastropods from Penton, and a supple- 

 ment to her list of Cumberland mollusca, Mr. Goodchild concludes his list of 

 Cumberland and Westmoreland Minerals and gives a paper on the ' Penrith Sand- 

 stone,' Mr. T. V. Holmes gives notes on the best locality for Coal beneath the 

 Permian Rocks of North-West Cumberland, and other geological papers are 

 by him and by Dr. J. Leitch. The Rev. H. A. Macpherson contributes bird- 

 notes and Mr. George Dawson a paper on the cuspidate moths of the Carlisle 

 district. 



June 1885. 



