REVIEWS. 
185 
a special bibliography of the waxwings (genus Ampelis , Linn.), and these are 
stated to be only portions of a great Bibliography of Ornithology not yet 
completed, but of which one section, namely that showing “ the North 
American section of the 1 Faunal Publications ’ series, including titles and 
digests of works and papers relating solely to birds of North America indis- 
criminately, collectively, or in general,” is published in advance as an appen- 
dix to the present volume. When we say that this portion relating solely 
to works and memoirs on the general avifauna of North America, or con- 
taining notices of birds not confined to any particular group, occupies nearly 
180 pages, some idea may be formed of the labour which the compilation of 
the whole must have entailed upon the author. The titles of the works here 
are arranged in order of date, but to facilitate reference the list is provided 
with two alphabetical indexes, one containing the names of authors, and the 
other the localities referred to. This bibliography will prove of the greatest 
value to all ornithologists. 
Few are the insects that have been honoured by having a special treatise 
all to themselves. The goat-moth caterpillar — u La chenille qui ronge le hois 
de saule ” — was anatomically immortalised by Lyonet ; the hive-bee and the 
silkworm have had many panegyrists ; the cochineal, a much smaller species, 
has also had its independent book ; and Southall devoted his a Treatise of 
Buggs ” to a subject which most people will regard as rather unsavoury. 
The Colorado potato-beetle, also popularly described as a bug, had his little 
treatises all to himself ; but with this, so far as our recollection serves, the 
list of species of insects which have arrived at the dignity of having their 
history narrated in separate publications, is pretty nearly exhausted. 
The Rocky Mountain locust ( Caloptenus spretus ) has now to be added to 
this honourable list, in consequence of the publication of a volume of nearly 
800 pages devoted exclusively to the history of his life and misdeeds, and 
to the best mode of punishing him for the latter, and preventing his ravages 
in the future.* 
This elaborate report, which is also brought out under the auspices of the 
Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, is the joint produc- 
tion of MM. C. Y. Riley, A. S. Packard, Jun., and Cyrus Thomas, and it is 
not too much to say that it reflects the highest credit upon them. Of the 
importance of the subject to the United States some conception may be 
formed from the fact that the Commissioners estimate the loss from the 
ravages of this locust to the states between the Mississippi and the Rocky 
Mountains, during the five years 1873-77, at 200,000,000 dollars, and they 
point out that the injury thus inflicted was the more severely felt as the 
losses fell most heavily upon a frontier population without wealth. 
The permanent habitation of this formidable locust, which is, however, 
individually but a small insect, about the size of an ordinary English grass- 
hopper, is a great stretch of country lying principally east of the Rocky 
Mountains, extending northwards into British territory, and including within 
the United States the territories of Nebraska and Wyoming, and portions of 
Colorado, Dakotah, and Nebraska. Here the species is always to be found 
* “ First Annual Report of the United States Entomological Commission 
for the year 1877, relating to the Rocky Mountain Locust.” 8vo. Wash- 
ington : Government Printing Office, 1878. 
