Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 4 (1900).djvu/312

284 Canary" (Alario alario), stated to be confined to Cape Colony and Great Namaqua Land, is also a sometime visitant to the Transvaal, the writer of this notice having still a living specimen of this constant songster which was captured more than six years ago near Pretoria.

Much information is given as to the nidification of the species, which by the descriptions and descriptive "keys" can be readily identified, though the volume only deals with about one-half of the Passerine Birds. We shall await the appearance of future volumes with the greatest interest, and the series will probably do the same for the fauna of South Africa as those edited by Mr. Blanford have done for the zoology of British India.

commendable energy and promptitude Sir George Hampson has completed the second volume of his "Lepidoptera Phalænæ," the previous volume having been noticed in these pages last year (1899, p. 37). The present instalment contains 589 pages, the critical arrangement and description of no fewer than 1217 species, and, in addition to over 400 uncoloured figures in the text, there is also issued in a supplementary form eighteen excellently coloured plates.

When we estimate the amount of thorough work expended in this publication, based on the examination of nearly all available material, with its specific and generic revision, its keys to facilitate identification, and its ample references to geographical distribution, combined with the universality of its fauna, there can be little doubt we are receiving the most important entomological publication of the day. Of course views will, and must, differ on generic division; on specific differentiation probably the last word is said in many cases, and naturalists, as a rule, as well as lepidopterists in particular, should welcome the healthy specific synthesis that obtains in these pages.

We are inclined to appraise these works beyond the purely entomological standpoint. A directory may give the names and addresses of a population, but does not constitute the history of