breeding of Odonata is attended with more difficulty than that of Lepidoptera, and a volume like the present is an incentive to that task, and is also provocative to observation.
"Of recent Dragonflies Linnæus knew only fifty-six species in the middle of last century, Baron de Selys Longchamps gave 1344 as the total in 1871. In 1890 Kirby could bring the list up to 1800, and thought that the number might be quadrupled, if only the group were more thoroughly worked. The total for Europe is just over a hundred, while in Britain there are forty." Of these last Mr. Lucas considers two as being synonymic, and this brings the number—including occasional visitors—to thirty-nine.
Many modern authorities now either treat the Odonata as a distinct order, or as a section of the Orthoptera; Mr. Lucas decides still to regard the Dragonflies as part of the Neuroptera. Without being a specialist in the study of these insects, he seems to have read up the literature with trouble and care, and to have consulted the records of captures sufficiently to give a good account of the distribution of each species in Britain. The illustrations leave little to be desired; the sexes of each species are portrayed in coloured plates, while many good figures ornament the text. In a purely entomological publication—which this Journal is not—many points might be discussed which are dealt with in the volume; it sufficeth us to regard it as a contribution to British Zoology which was wanted, which will be welcomed by most naturalists, and which has been produced in a handsome and thorough manner.
This publication is the zoological strength of the Report of the U.S. National Museum for the year ending June 30th, 1897, and which has just been printed and received.
We read that material from above one hundred and twenty-five stations has been carefully studied, and specimens from more than a hundred localities have been preserved and identified. Of these localities, fifty-eight are in the North Atlantic
