200L00IC1E BOTANICAL LITERATURE. 
469 
the latter work we believe only one part has appeared. If we are not mistaken, 
Mr. Bell has publi^ed 'a large work on Testudinata ; and he is about to under¬ 
take the British Reptiles in Van Voorst’s zoological series. 
Fishes were at an early period illustrated v/ith considerable success. Wil- 
lughby’s De Historia Piscium Libri Quatuor^ edited by Cromwell Mortimer, 
physician (London, 1743, folio), is a valuable book, as are also the following:— 
Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, par MM. Cuvier et Valenciennes (Paris, 
1828—33, 9 vols. 4to.) ; Bloch’s Ickthyologie (Berlin, 1785'—^95,12 parts, folio); 
Lacepede’s HisU Nat. des Poissons (Paris, 1798—1803, 5 vols., 4to.); Bonde- 
LETius Dc Pisdbus Marinis (1554, folio); Nilsson’s Prodromus IcUhyologim 
ScandinmiccB (1832, 8vo.); Bay’s Synopsis Piscmm (1713, 8vo.),- Mrs. Bow- 
dich’s Fresh-water Fishes of Britain (1828, 4to.). Donovan issued a History of 
British Fishes, which, however, has been entirely eclipsed and rendered useless 
by the publication, in 1836, of Mr. Yarrell’s work with a similar title (Van 
Voorst, 2 vols., 8vo.). 
Having thus brought our rapid retrospect of the works relating to vertebrated 
animals to a close, we may be expected to furnish some account of those dedicated 
to insects. This, however, we shall do in a very few words, both because that 
department would require a chapter—nay a volume, aye, and a thick one too— 
to complete it in a manner satisfactory to ourselves and our readers, and because 
we have at present neither time nor space to devote to the undertaking. If Mr. 
Dale, Mr. Rylands, or any other of our entomological readers would furnish a 
condensed paper on this subject, for The Naturalist, it could not fail to be both 
interesting and instructive. 
Latreille’s Entomology, Stephens’s Illustrations of British Entomology, and 
Newman’s Grammar of Entomology, will suffice to impart a very fair knowledge 
of the subject, if combined with field study. Curtis’s British Entomology, illus¬ 
trative of the genera, is a truly splendid work ; many volumes are published, and 
it now rapidly approaches its close. Every one who can afford it should possess 
a copy of this publication. Mr. Samouelle has written an Entomologisfs Use¬ 
ful Compendium. Need we add any further commendation of this volume ? 
Lest we should perchance bewilder and alarm the student of Natural History 
by our retrospect, and the numerous works noticed, rather than encourage him to 
pursue the course upon which he has entered, and lead him in his selection of 
literary guides, we purpose concluding the present essay by mentioning a few of 
. the works indispensable to every naturalist. 
For Zoology, then, Cuvier’s Regne Animal, or Dr. Shaw’s General Zoology, 
will suffice. In Mammalogy Bell’s British Quadrupeds; in Ornithology 
Latham's General Synopsis of Birds, Wilson, Audubon, or Nuttall’s Ameri¬ 
can Ornithology, Montagu, Selby, or Yarrell’s British Birds ; in Erpetopology, 
No. 15, Vol.IL 3 q 
