Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/120

94 the Moths of India were in the present position of the Moths of Africa, the game of happy hunting grounds for specialists, but a hopeless study for the average lepidopterist. The material was comparatively scanty, with a systematic literature obscure, scattered, and surcharged with synonomy. Without access to a large and well arranged collection, it was hopeless to attempt even much generic subdivision, save in the largest or best known groups of Moths. Hence much work was necessarily of an empirical description, and many of the "difficult" groups remained outside the nomenclature. This is now no longer the case; with these volumes a student of Oriental Heterocera should not find much difficulty in understanding his subject or naming his species. Each genus is illustrated by a typical species, of which one half exhibits the venation, while the other recorded species are also described.

The author has pursued a synthetic method in his work, but on the merits of "splitting," or "lumping," the pages of 'The Zoologist' contain no mention. We merely record the completion of a great and successful undertaking; and when it is remembered that the first volume only appeared in 1892, the industry alone displayed is something phenomenal.

'International Zoologists' Directory,' edited and published by the well-known Berlin firm whose catalogues are always appreciated by scientific workers, will prove a weleome addition to the bookshelf. In these days when zoological work is carried on by so many widely separated students, it is a boon to readily acquire the address of those with whom we wish to correspond. It is equally important to discover the names of those who in far-away localities are interested in the same studies as ourselves, and may be expected to join in mutual assistance. Taken in conjunction with 'The Scientists' International Directory,' compiled by Cassino and published in Boston in 1892, a mass of information is available which will save much time in these busy days, and serve to increase—where necessary—the number of our correspondents.