CURRENT LITERATURE.
ILLUSTRATED GIFT-BOOKS.—VI.
The beauty of its coloured plates and its generally luxurious appearance entitle European Butterflies anq Moths, by W. F. Kirby (Cassell and Co.), to mention in this list, though its character and its execution are such as to give it a high place among the more popular scientific works of the time. The work is based on Borge's well- known " Schmetterlingsbuela." That, however, being chiefly con- fined to the species of Macro-lepidoptera to be found in central Europe, the plan of the English edition has been extended so as to give descriptions of the whole of the speoies inhabiting Europe proper, with additions bringing the subject generally down to the present time. If anything could make entomology one of the moat popular of sciences, it is this magnificent volume.—Nughes's Illustrated Anecdotal Natural History, by the Rev. J. G. Wood and Theo- dore Wood (Joseph Hughes), contains a great deal of useful and entertaining information, packed into small space. The illustrations are good ; the type is, perhaps, a little too small for a work of this kind.—Mrs, Salo Barker discourses in her usual vivacione style of Some of My Feathered and Four-footed Friends (Routleclge), and as she tells a host of anecdotes with an egotism that is tolerable and even enjoyable, we can very heartily recommend her book. The illustrations, too, though bold and coloured, have nothing of coarse- ness or " loudness " to mar them.
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