56 
REVIEWS. 
pleases us, should never have committed such a lapsus calami as to repre¬ 
sent the fable of Chevy Chase as a naval engagement, and Witherington 
as an “ old sailor,” whose “ legs were shot away,” the touching original of 
which history is so little known in its oldest and best form that we crave • 
the indulgence of being allowed to quote it:— 
“ For Wetharryngton my harte was wo, 
That ever he slayne shulde be, 
, For when both his leggis wear hewyne in to, 
He knyled and fought on hys kne.” 
One or two passages there are to which we object on graver grounds ; 
but disliking preaching out of season, we will but note a few and pass on. 
“World of Insects,” page 55—a few remarks on education, a grave'sub¬ 
ject, touched in a strain worthy of our present Premier. “ Practical 
Hints,” pp. 88-91—an extract from Dr. C. R. Goring, parts of which 
seem to us to be in bad taste, unphilosophical, fallacious as to argument, 
and irreverent in tone, though, doubtless, well meant. The intimation, 
also, at page 8, of the author’s habit of making Sunday a day for collect¬ 
ing-excursions we are far from commending. There is one class of obser¬ 
vations, however, of frequent occurrence with which we cordially sympa¬ 
thise—viz., his caustic denunciations of that pseudo-scientific crew whom 
he terms “ unprofitable companions,” and the hucksters, pedlars, and jews 
entomological, who study for pride and usury’s sake, not for genuine love 
of science and the improvement of their fellow-men. The account of the 
author’s adventures on Wimbledon Common in pursuit of the larvae of 
Peronea Hastiana, pp. 144-149, is instructive in more ways than one. 
There is, perhaps, no single feature in the book calling for special notice in 
a cursory review, its general character being simple and uniform—viz,, a 
catalogue of the more desirable Lepidoptera to be found in each month, 
with their respective localities, interspersed here and there with a few prac¬ 
tical hints as to discovery and capture, or a description, perhaps, of the 
mines, cases, or retreats of the smaller larvae, with the same interest. Very 
few details of their economy are furnished, this being without the scope of 
the work. The instances of the lichen-feeding larva of Bryophila perla, 
extracted from the Trans. Ent. Soc., and of Phorodesma Smaragdaria, are 
pleasing exceptions. One or two yet unsolved problems as to the food of 
certain larvae are propounded, e.g., (Ecophora grandis (though this is pro¬ 
bably virtually solved already in favour of rotten wood), Peronea Cristana, 
and others. This book and Mr. Douglas’s are so dissimilar in object and 
general character, that they do not admit of comparison, and it is only acci¬ 
dentally that they at any time touch for a moment on the same subjects. 
