delight and instruction in the past, and is still anticipated as a cherished hope of the future, but there are birds in this country—to go no further afield—to which only organised protection can prevent ultimate extermination, for ignorance of their habits is a principal cause of their destruction. In this first instalment of the series, the birds described are Owls, Woodpeckers, Starlings, Swallows, Kingfisher, Osprey, Dippers, Nightjar, Titmice, Kestrel, and Plovers, and a woodcut is given of each, so that he who reads can clearly understand. Not only are their food and habits enumerated, but the penalties for their destruction are clearly detailed, a perusal of which will certainly surprise many a birdnesting boy and amateur bird-catcher.
This is another volume of "Allen's Naturalists' Library," and forms part of the section devoted to Entomology, a subject entrusted to Mr. W.F. Kirby. The present volume refers to thirteen families of moths, of which the Sphingidæ, Bombycidæ, Saturniidæ, and Lasiocampidæ are perhaps the most generally known to most readers. Many of the more important genera and species are described from all parts of the world—a special and fuller treatment being accorded to our British species—and the coloured plates, of which there are no fewer than thirty-one, contain representations of some species not before figured, and others of great rarity. But useful and interesting as these features are, this book will be more often consulted for an excellent essay "On the Systems of Classification of Moths," and a still more important "Sketch of the Literature of Lepidoptera." Mr. Kirby is well known as one of the best entomological bibliographers of the day, and therefore in these articles we find a most accurate condensation of literary information which an amateur will find instructive, and a specialist interesting reading.
The first essay, devoted to a retrospect of the principal systems proposed for the classification of moths, commences with that of Linnasus in 1758, and terminates with that of Dr. Packard in 1895. A survey, or rather a study, of these propositions, made in a
