336 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



higher in the scale, such as Lampyrus and others, is, without 

 doubt, up to a certain point, under the influence of the nerv- 

 ous system, this permitting them to shine at will. In this 

 case the secretion is arrested for the moment, but it is known 

 that the eggs of Lampyrus shine for some time after they are 

 laid, probably from containing a small quantity of noctilu- 

 cine. In the animals lower in the scale there appears to be 

 the existence of a special organ for the production of light ; 

 and where we find scarcely any traces of a nervous system the 

 secretion of luminous matter is often subject to external cir- 

 cumstances. 6 B, August 26, 1872, 547. 



CARPAL AND TARSAL BONES OF BIRDS. 



Professor Gegenbaur first demonstrated the existence of 

 two bones in the tarsal joint of birds, with the joint occurring 

 between the first and second tarsal bones, as in reptiles. 



Professor Edward S. Morse, of Salem, Massachusetts, in a 

 memoir on the carpus and tarsus of birds, just published in 

 the "Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History," 

 has shown the existence of an additional tarsal bone, and has 

 also shown the relations of another bone discovered by Pro- 

 fessor Wyman as belonging to the tarsal series, thus making 

 four bones belonging to the tarsus. 



Professor Morse's embryological researches have also add- 

 ed two, and in some birds three, bones to the wrist. These 

 bones, as well as the bones of the tarsus, can only be seen in 

 the early embryonic state ; in the adult bird they unite or 

 anchylose with the approximate bones of the member to which 

 they belong. These studies were made on many of the com- 

 mon species of wild birds, and full illustrations of the parts, 

 with their respective embryos, accompany the memoir. These 

 discoveries establish still further the reptilian affinities of 

 birds. 



COUES ON THE BIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



The work of Dr. Coues, just published, upon the birds of 

 the United States, includes a synopsis of the fossil forms sup- 

 plied by Professor O. C. Marsh, who has made this branch of 

 paleontology a special study. He enumerates no less than 

 twenty-nine species, to which number must be added several 

 others discovered by Professor Marsh in his late trip to the 



