Alexander Henry Haliday

“ The most accurate determination of the species, and of the trivial names according to their legitimate priority, has been taken from the recent monographers who have treated particular families most carefully in these respects. Where such help has been wanting, the authors do not seem, indeed, to have used as much diligence or judgment in their more extensive work as Mr. Dawson has done in his Monograph, in regard to the latter point at least ; but as they have ventured to exert less original decision, so they have laid themselves less open, perhaps, to common-place adverse criticism. ”

“ A writer on British Coleoptera, who, confining himself to his local materials, should at the same time indulge in changes of the system and nomenclature, in accordance with his private views, as to parts of his subject which he had perhaps studied almost for the first time, when he thought of setting about to teach others ”

“ For the convenience of the mere British collector, the Faune Francaise will, probably, be found the more suitable, as.it will certainly be far the most portable, if both works are continued on the scale commenced respectively. We can scarcely wish it were otherwise, as there is occasion for both of these attempts to supply much-felt existing deficiencies ; and while each is particularly accommodated to its own circle of readers, they may both be serviceable to all, as mutually supplementary. ”

“ The publication there of a work so purely scientific, and of which no version has been adventured in England, is but one of many proofs of the deep hold which the Natural Sciences are taking in North America, even side by side with the fierce excitement of gold-winning in some of the newly settled States A new and enlarged edition of the original work, in German, is also commenced ; but the appearance of the volume of Invertebrata, by Siebold, has been hitherto delayed, while two parts of the Vertebrata, by his coadjutor, Stannius, have come out already. ”

“ The distinctions he has assigned are so minute, and most of them merely comparative, that we scarcely venture to pronounce confidently that the common species of the British coasts represents this Al. grisea, as is most probable. If Kraatz is right in separating them as species, the Al. obscurella of the Faune Francaise is probably identical with the British and Swedish species. Kraatz again seems to imagine that the sexual difference of size may indicate yet another species to be separated from Al. obscurella. ”

“ Kirschbaum has added materially to the European species of Capsus, &c, in his list of the Capsini of Wiesbaden. The illustrated Monograph of Aphides, by Koch, seems to have come to a stand still. We have been looking out in vain, also, for the promised volume on the British Hemiptera, by Mr. Dallas, which was to have preceded the concluding volume of the Diptera, in the series of "Insecta Britannica." Although Mr. Walker's volume is out, and Mr. Dallas makes no sign, we hope the other is not superseded, but only lying by awhile, to ripen more completely. ”

“ A point at which they have laid themselves more open to criticism is, that for want of antiquarian research, they have adopted some changes of the commonly received nomenclature,which do not yet attain to the ultimate Q. E. I. of the very earliest scientific nomenclature. ”

“ Stainton's popular monthly issue for the benefit of the Butterfly-collectors.Now, although the Lepidopterist of to-day is scientifically much in advance of the "Aurelian" of the last generation, still the study of the Coleoptera has kept its vantage-ground in the literature of Entomology ; and it demands to be treated accordingly. ”

“ Although no independent work, of any extent, on this order has issued from the press in Britain, during the past year, yet the Entomologists' Annual, continued for 1857 by the enterprising and persevering editor, bears witness that the study of the indigenous species has been pursued with commendable zeal, the additions to the British Fauna in this order, for the year 1856, amounting to not less than sixty species, two of which, however, are stigmatised with a note of suspicion, as possible " importations."Mr. ”

“ The Embryology and Alternate generations of the Intestinal worms have been yet further elucidated in various quarters, chiefly by Siebold, Kuechenmeister, Leuckart, Beneden, and Philippi. An interesting popular sketch of the recent discoveries in this province of Natural History, which have excited such a lively interest, has also been given by Mr. De Quatrefages, in the Revue des Deux Mondes. The Prize in Physical Science, which was offered for the best account of the structure and development of the common Earthworm, having been awarded to Mr. ”