i88o.] 
Analyses of Books. 
663 
United States Entomological Commission. No. 4. The Hessian 
Ely. Washington : Government Printing-Office. 
The Hessian fly ranks among the more destructive of the 
noxious insects of the United States, and pays its unwelcome 
attentions principally to wheat. So serious have been its ravages 
that the cultivation of wheat in the New England States was 
abandoned about twenty years ago, and is only now being 
resumed. The more interest attaches to this insect as it is 
aboriginal not in the United States, but in Central Europe, and 
only became noxious in America about a century ago. 
The Hessian fly is as unlovely in its appearance as in its 
propensities, being, except as regards its antennae, a miniature 
crane-fly. It has fortunately a diligent enemy in Semiotellus 
destructor , a parasitic ichneumon of the family Chalcididae, which 
in some seasons disposes of nine-tenths of the Hessian fly. 
Mineral Statistics of Victoria for the Year 1879. 
For the first time for many years the annual yield of gold shows 
a slight increase on that obtained during the previous season, 
and amounts to 758,947 ounces. Extensive and highly auriferous 
quartz-veins have been discovered near Ballarat. 
The total yield of silver was 23,729 ounces, all parted from 
gold, no silver-ore having been raised. 
Only 24 tons of tin-ore have been obtained. The yearly 
produce of copper-ore has been 3862 tons, and of antimony 
495I tons. 
No lead-ore and coal have been raised, and only 120 tons of 
iron-ore. 
The Journal of the Royal and Archaeological Association of 
Ireland. Vol. V., No. 40. (Fourth Series.) 
It appears that at present the most scandalous destruction of 
important antiquities, cairns, cromleacs, &c., has been going on 
at Devenish and Bundoran. Mr. E. H. Cooper gives a cata- 
logue of fifty-one monuments, most of which have been 
damaged, and some entirely destroyed. We trust that Sir John 
Lubbock will before long succeed in getting his Bill for the pre- 
servation of such remains safely through Parliament. 
