REVIEWS. 
93 
tioned merely by name as British, the specific identity of which is in no 
wise authenticated, but in many cases is, in all probability, mistaken. The 
object of enabling the collector to name his insects in the readiest and 
shortest way is not at all satisfactorily attained. The analytic tables, in¬ 
tended as a guide to the determination of the species, come very near the 
mark, indeed, in some cases; as in the family Dolichopidce , where the 
analysis only wants to be carried out further, when it leads to several 
species collectively. In other cases, they have a semblance of precision? 
which tends rather to mislead, as in the genera Tachina and Anthomyia. 
The diagnoses and descriptions are not of uniform quality in all the fami¬ 
lies ; sometimes the description is little more than a translation or para¬ 
phrase of the diagnosis, when the repetition should have been avoided, if 
but for the sake of saving room; nor, in fact, does there appear any good 
reason for keeping the two distinct. It would have been better if Mr. 
Walker had consolidated them, confining himself to the distinctive cha¬ 
racters, especially those of form, and signalizing the differences from the 
nearest allied species more particularly than he has done. Scarcely any 
directions are given where to find the insects, or how to procure them by 
rearing ; and this in a work professedly intended for the use of collectors. 
Scientific entomologists have neither right nor motive to look down on those 
who occupy themselves chiefly with collecting; but, on the contrary, the 
strongest reasons to afford them all possible encouragement and aid. The 
recruits of science must be drawn from the ranks of the collectors; and 
many mere collectors have rendered as much good service to it, as scientific 
smatterers have done harm by their scribbling. 
Along with the matter of merely temporary value, Mr. Walker’s volumes 
embrace much that is of permanent interest: this we must consider as an 
actual defect. What properly belongs to the Fauna will in time become 
obsolete, by the continual new discoveries of indigenous species, and this 
lies in the nature of things; while the portion that is of durable interest, 
as the descriptions of new species, will make the work, with all its lumber, 
indispensable to future writers ; and every new edition of it, if got up in 
the same way, will be equally so. This may be for the advantage of book¬ 
sellers, but it must prove a serious clog to the march of science. We 
have already made the remark that the author of a Fauna maybe tempted 
to originate for himself the scientific foundation which his work requires. 
We may observe that Mr. Walker has taken this course in two ways par¬ 
ticularly. In respect to the systematic portion, we have before acknow¬ 
ledged the merit of what he has achieved; this is so great that we con- 
