194 



Reviews and Book Notices. 



Philonthus dehilis Gr. in a dead bird on the coast at Saltbnrn, 

 in 1906. This is not a rare species, and has probabl}/ been 

 overlooked in Yorkshire, some of the smaller Philonthi being 

 very closely alhed, and rather difficult to determine. I am 

 indebted to Mr. G. C. Champion for kindly examining the above 

 insects, and settling my doubts respecting them. — M. Lawson 

 Thompson, Saltburn-by-the-Sea. 



REVIEWS ANcTbOOK NOTICES. 



A Guide to the Exhibited Series of Insects, British Museum, 

 Natural History, Zoological Department, Insect Section, 1908. 60 pp., i/- 

 The authorities of the Natural History Museum, South Kensington, 

 are to be congratulated upon the frequency with which these guides to the 

 special departments are being produced. The present volume has a pre- 

 fatory note by Mr. C. O. Waterhouse, and is about as concise a description 

 of the various orders of insects as could be well wished. After giving some 

 remarks on the general arrangement of the gallery, and a most useful 

 chapter on the structure and classification of insects, the various orders 

 are dealt with, including Aptera, Orthoptera, Neuroptera, Trichoptera, 

 Mallophaga, Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, Diptera, Coleoptera and 

 Rhynchota. There are no fewer than sixty-two excellent illustrations, 

 several being from photographs. One of these, shewing a portion of a 

 swarm of locusts, the authorities kindly allaw us to reproduce (plate xvii). 



Three Voyages of a Naturalist : being an account of many little- 

 known islands in three oceans visited by the ' Valhalla ' R.S.Y., by M. J. 

 NicoII, with an introduction by the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Crawford, K.T.,. 

 F.R.S. Witherby & Co., 1908. 246 pp., price 7/6 net. 



The Earl of Crawford informs us that he has ' two inseparable hangers- 

 on — the one rheumatism, the other asthma.' For fifteen years he has 

 found relief from these by spending his winters in the seas of the sunny 

 south. At a suggestion of a brother trustee of the British Museum, he took 

 Mr. M. Nicoll on three voyages, for the purpose of securing specimens for 

 the national collection. The first voyage lasted eight months, during which 

 over two hundred bird-skins, thirty mammals, a few hundred fishes and 

 reptiles, and several hundred butterflies, moths, etc. were secured. The 

 second voyage occupied five months, v/hen a similar number of specimens 

 was secured, including three birds new to science. The third voyage 

 occupied seven months, and as Mr. Meade- Waldo v/as present on this 

 occasion, and attended to the insects, Mr. Nicolls was able to devote more 

 time to the vertebrates, and secured eight birds new to science, besides 

 many rarities. During these voyages many interesting and rarely visited 

 islands were investigated. The localities visited were the East coast of 

 South America, through the Straits of Magellan up to Valparaiso, across 

 the Southern Pacific Ocean. The West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, the 

 Southern Indian Ocean, etc., etc. were also seen, and the various interesting 

 natural history facts ascertained are graphically enumerated. The volume 

 takes the form of an entertaining narrative, in non-technical language, 

 but is never- theless full of points of value to the naturalist, be he zoologist 

 or botanist. It contains many useful observations in almost every branch 

 of natural history, var^dng from the most reliable account of a huge marine 

 monster — probably the origin of some of the sea-serpent stories, to the 

 descriptions of the leaf-insect, examples of which have been reared by Mr. 

 W. H. St. Quintin, from eggs laid by insects brouglit home from Seychelles. 

 An illustration of one of these we are kindly permitted to reproduce 

 (plate xviii.). The book is suitably produced, and is illustrated by fifty-six 

 plates, as well as other illustrations. 



Naturalist, 



