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this branch of Entomology, than "Newman's Natural History of British Butterflies and Moths." The life-history of each species is described with careful minuteness, and every insect named is represented by an exquisitely drawn portrait, with the help of the description and figure there given. it is perfectly easy for the veriest type to recognise any particular butterfly or moth in his collection. The "Butterflies" and "Moths" are published separately, but can also be had bound together in one volume. The publisher is T. P. Newman, 32, Botolph Lane, Eastcheap, E.C., and the price is about 21s. for the two volumes.

I will conclude the present notes by recommending (in reply to a request that has been addressed to me) a cheap, easy, reliable book on "Bees". There exist several very valuable works on this subject, some of which may be specially referred to at a future time, but I do not know of one which answers the above description more fully than "Shuckard's British Bees," (Lovell Reeve, price 10s. 6d.) It is a small volume, but contains a large amount of trustworthy information about this most interesting section of the order Hymenoptera. A number of woodcuts of dissections, and sixteen beautifully-coloured steel plates, (containing about 100 figures,) greatly enhance the value of the book.

With my friend S. S. R., I have again visited the "Productive Pond," (ante p 76,) and two others, in one of which my friend had some time back found Melicerta tyro, the new species found by Dr. Hudson at Sutton Coldfield. At first we thought we had found a specimen, but it proved to be Foscularia campanulata, with a large cluster of eggs at the bottom of the case surrounding its foot. I am sorry to report that Conochilas volvox is becoming scarce, There are, however, other rotifers in great abundance. I found the following this day, (March 16th,) besides other forms of animal and vegetable life too numerous to mention:—Chætonotus larus, Conochilus volvox, Cephalosiphon limnias, Melicerta ringens, Floscularia campanulata, Notommata aurita, Synchæta pecttinata, Polyarthra platutyptera, Ratlus lanaris, Mastigocerca rattus, Euchlanis dilatata, Salpina mucronata, Metopidia acuminata, Rotifer vulgaris, and two other species which I could not identify. One of the ponds we found literally full of Volvox globator. Recently I spent a day at Sutton Park, and found Limnias ceratophylli in extraordinary abundance, and a few specimens of Stephanoceros Eichhornii and Melicerta ringens. In another locality I found a great abundance of Anuræt aecminata, a sprinkling of Pterodina patina, and some few specimens of Anuræa foliacea and Dinocharis pocillum—On the 21st February I found here, for the first time this season, the fine Polyzoan Fredericella sultana. This is, I think, very early for its appearance in a natural habitat. In a zoophyte trough I have now some fine young Plumatella repens just commencing life, and protruding their lophophores whilst still enclosed between the valve-like plates of the statoblasts. from which they have grown. They are objects of great beauty and, being very transparent, their anatomy is plainly visible under the microscope.—Thos. Bolton, Hyde House, Stourbridge.