NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
British Flies. Vol. VIII. By G.H. Verrall.Gurney & Jackson.
This is the first of fourteen volumes on the British Diptera, in which Mr. Verrall proposes to describe and illustrate a very much neglected order of our insular insects. In writing his first volume, he has already helped to fill a gap which existed on the shelves containing the publications on the Natural History of Britain.
This volume commences the series devoted to the Diptera Cyclorrhapha, and describes the Platypezidæ, Pipunculidæ, and Syrphidæ. It is not a compilation, and for the very best reasons: firstly, the antecedent publication is too small for the purpose; and secondly, it is the result and condensation of some thirty years' collecting and observation. It mostly follows the best traditions of monographic productions, although on many points Mr. Verrall is a law unto himself. Thus the synonymy of the genera and species has been deferred to a catalogue at the end of the volume, though the author's synonymical criticisms are appended to his descriptions of the species. We are, perhaps, old-fashioned, but we like this course as little as the sometime practice of discarding footnotes, and placing such references in the same position as Mr. Verrall's synonymical records are to be found.
The author's descriptions of the species are ample, concise, and clear, and if his views recently expressed in a presidential address—that all insufficient descriptions should be discarded—are to be followed, then, as a logical correlation, the name of Verrall should in justice be applied as the parent name to many of these species. But we do not think this is likely to take place; all reforms are only partial; you may shift, but you cannot abolish, the vested interest. In nomenclature there is no
