Suites a Buffon. 567 
II. Suites a Buffon, formant, avec les ceuvres de cet auteur un cours 
complet d'histoire naturelle. Collection accompagnee de planches. 
Dipteres, par M. MACQUART. Tom i. 1834. Species general des 
Lepidopteres, par le Dr BOISDUVAL. Tom. i. 1836. 
J UDGING from the volumes which we have had an opportunity of 
examining, the Suites d Buffon promise to form one of the most 
valuable contributions to natural history that has appeared for a 
considerable time. The design is an extensive one, and its success- 
ful completion will entitle the projectors to the gratitude of all the 
cultivators of natural science. It embraces a comprehensive view, 
descriptive and historical, of all the different departments of the 
animal kingdom which were not adequately treated of by Buffon. 
As supplementary, therefore, to the works of that eminent writer, 
this series relates chiefly to the invertebrate animals, the natural his- 
tory of which was comparatively little understood in his time. It is es- 
timated to extend to about 45 octavo volumes, a considerable number 
of which have been already published, and the rest are promised at 
monthly intervals. The authors entrusted with the respective de- 
partments have long made them a subject of careful study, and in 
general are well known to naturalists by works already published in 
relation to them. In the entomological department, to which for 
the present we mean to restrict our observations, we find the names 
of De Jean (Coleoptera), Boisduval (Lepidoptera), Le Peletier 
de Saint Fargeau (Hymenoptera), Audinet Serville (Orthopiera, 
Neuroptera and Henriplera), Lacordaire (Introduction to Entomo- 
logy), and Macquart (Diptera), all of whom have already shewn 
their intimate acquaintance with the different branches they have 
undertaken to illustrate. 
The last named individual first became known in this country by 
his work on the Dipterous insects of the north of France. This 
production affords a detailed description of all the species found by 
the author in the district alluded to, accompanied with a pretty full 
account of their general history, and generic distinctions. It is not, 
however, distinguished for originality, comparatively little import' 
ant information being supplied that is not to be found in Meigen's 
admirable work on the two-winged insects of Europe, from which 
in most cases, the descriptions have been little more than translated. 
In one instance, perhaps, he may be admitted to have improved on 
his model, by taking more particularly into account the neuration 
of the wings, from which he has been enabled to deduce characters 
of the greatest importance in the definition of natural groups. 
