REVIEWS. 
193 
ceases. There is an absence of plan in the construction of the work. Details 
oft of no importance are too much attended to. Withal the book is styled 
a work on zoology, yet the yertebrata occupy only about ten or twelve pages. 
Then there is an utter absence of anything like classification. Finally, the 
author's list of works to be referred to shows an utter misconception of the 
nature of the wants of the student. We cannot recommend the work to any 
but the dilettante teacher of zoology. 
POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY.* 
O F the two little books that we have before us we take that which is 
written by the woman to be the best, as it certainly is the most original. 
Indeed, the “ Dwellers in our Gardens ” is in many respects a clever book, 
in which many points in natural history are exceedingly well told in pithy 
language, and withal in a style which is quite commensurate with the intel- 
ligence of the class to which it is addressed. It is specially interesting 
from the fact that it possesses as a frontispiece a plate which is apparently 
borrowed from the u Curiosities of Entomology,” and which shows us at a 
glance several remarkable instances of insect disguises. And by insect dis- 
guises we mean some of those resemblances of animals to plants which serve 
to preserve the former, by the natural preservation which they afford to 
them from their enemies. Many of these curious facts in natural history 
have been indicated by Darwin, Wallace, Belt, Bates, and others, and in the 
works of few of these distinguished writers are the curious facts of animal 
disguises better illustrated than in Sara Wood’s little volume. Her several 
chapters are all taken up with the ordinary animal occupants of our country 
gardens. But there are little bits here and there that show us the writer’s 
observations as a naturalist. This is especially to be seen in the remarks on 
the spinnerets of the spider, in which the structure of the web and appa- 
ratus for its manufacture are very fully and intelligently explained. In the 
chapter which is devoted to the lepidoptera we find a full account of the 
microscopic scales of the butterfly, and of the numerously curious forms of 
the eggs in the lepidoptera. The other chapters on bees, aphides, birds, and 
frogs are likewise interesting; and, together with the charming coloured 
plate of birds, birds’ eggs, moths, and butterflies, form a volume of pleasant 
and useful material for the young. Indeed, we have never seen a better 
coloured plate than that of the golden-crested wren, which faces p. 107 of 
this excellent little work. 
Mr. Houghton’s book, which is issued by the same house as the above, and 
which is got up in a somewhat similar style as regards paper, print, and 
illustration, is not so original, but is by no means a bad essay on the subject. 
* u The Dwellers in our Gardens : their Lives and Works.” By Sara Wood. 
London : Groombridge. 1875. 
“ Sketches of British Insects : a Handbook for Beginners in the Study of 
Entomology.” By the Rev. W. Houghton, M.A., F.L.S. London : Groom- 
bridge. 1875. 
YOL. XY. — XO. LIX. O 
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