i88o.] 
Analyses of Books. 71 1 
Blood Cicada was dire and classic. About the commencement 
of July there appeared as if by magic certain greyish insectivo- 
rous birds with a harsh and guttural note, among the sunny 
vines and the woody knolls where the Cicadae had established 
their coteries, and these, sitting on the low brambles, sometimes 
two together, knavishly whistled a tune until an unwary songster 
was inveigled to respond, and so betray his hiding. The in- 
truders then flew at him and brought him to the ground in their 
beak and claws, screaking most piteously Whee ! Whee ! ” 
The author, like ourselves, feels surprised that so many 
naturalists should be busied with the physiology of the Mollusca 
and lower forms of marine life “ while we possess so little defi- 
nite acquaintance with the life-history and structure of inseCts,” 
and that entomology is still in the hands of the majority of its 
followers a mere matter of nomenclature. He very judiciously 
advises colleaors before putting a specimen to death to note its 
specific odour, if any, and to observe whether it stridulates. 
With the following passage we cannot entirely agree : speak- 
ing of bees, wasps, and ants he states “The very excellence of 
the aCts performed by these unreasoning creatures is, as Dr. Car- 
penter has remarked, a proof of a non-intelligent nature.” We 
have always suspeCted that the learned and voluble DoCtor when 
penning these words must have been in a state of “unconscious 
cerebration.” By the very same course of argument higher 
intelligences — and we are old-fashioned enough to believe that 
such exist — might demonstrate the non-intelligent nature of 
man. Nor can we admit Lamarck’s definition of Insecta as mere 
sentient animals unable to combine the simple ideas which they 
derive from their sensations. 
A little further we find the interesting generalisation that the 
Lepidoptera most conspicuous for beautiful colour are the most 
lethargic. 
The seCtion on the odoriferous, corrosive, and coloured prin- 
ciples secreted by inseCts is exceedingly valuable. Much further 
research is here evidently necessary, the chemical portion of 
which will be impeded by the difficulty of obtaining a sufficient 
quantity of the material for analysis. We read that the caterpillar 
of P. Machaon gives off a powerful odour of fennel. This faCt 
is not surprising when, as is often the case, it feeds upon fennel, 
but is less readily understood when its food-plant is the carrot, 
or the caraway. The eleCtric shocks, said on the authority of a 
writer in the Magazine of Natural History , to be given by the 
caterpillar of the puss-moth require confirmation. 
In describing the scent* organs of butterflies Mr. Swinton gives 
the needful caution that these inseCts may occasionally absorb 
the odours of the flowers they have visited. 
We must take exception to the author’s remark that the 
Diptera aie unarmed : witness the genera Stomoxys and above 
all Erax. 
