156 
NATURE NOTES 
“ Red from the hills, innumerable streams 
Tumultuous roar, 
the colour of his torrents betrays their Scottish origin. He was thinking of the 
spates in his native streams which sweep across tracts of Old Red Sandstone, and 
come down almost brick-red in hue. There are no red rocks, and therefore no 
red brooks in Middlesex and the surrounding districts.” 
Space does not allow us to quote further ; but the author 
goes on to show that in “ The Castle of Indolence ” the influence 
of England gained entire sway. Equally interesting is the 
tracing of the increasing appreciation of the wilder aspects of 
nature from the publication of Macpherson’s poems (1760) 
inspired by the highlands of Western Argyllshire, to the works 
of Rousseau, and Scott’s “Lady of the Lake” (1810). The 
whole lecture is, in fact, most suggestive. 
Insects: Foes and Friends. By W. Egmont Kirby, M.D., 
with preface by W. F. Kirby, F.L.S., F.E.S. Partridge 
& Co. is. 6d. 
This handy little book of less than 150 small pages, but with 
thirty-two excellent coloured plates, describes about eighty 
insects, and figures nearly seventy of them. The book itself is 
translated from the German, and the names on its title-page are 
a sufficient guarantee of the care with which it has been adapted 
for English use. Eighty species form, of course, a very limited 
selection from the 12,000 British, or 300,000 known species of 
insects ; but the examples chosen include representatives of the 
seven principal orders, so that the book will form an admirable 
introduction to the study in our rural schools. The following 
passage from Mr. W. F. Kirby’s preface will, we think, be of 
interest to all English students of Nature : — 
“ Sometimes an insect which is very destructive in one country may become 
extremely rare or extinct in another, without any apparent reason, as in the case 
of the Black-veined White Butterfly and the Gipsy Moth, which are very destruc- 
tive on the continent, but are almost extinct in England. . . . The amount 
of mischief caused to farmers and gardeners in Britain, however, is much less than 
that to which they are exposed in many parts of the Continents of Europe and 
North America. Our damp, unsettled climate is peculiarly unfavourable to insect 
life, and our insular position also accounts for our insect fauna being much poorer 
in species, as well as less numerous in individuals, than the neighbouring parts of 
Europe. Many species of insects, too, are much reduced in numbers by the opera- 
tion of the Wild Birds’ Protection Act, for most of the birds w'hich fall under its 
operation are more or less exclusively insect-eaters, and I think it probable that 
the disappearance of the Black-veined White Butterfly from Britain is due chiefly 
to this cause.” 
There are separate indexes of English and Latin names ; but 
we are sorry that the scientific names are not associated with 
the English ones on the plates, as they are in the text, more 
especially as many of the so-called English names are merely 
coinages not popularly current. 
