306 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



Owen's mind, that it was a warm-blooded biped, with wings, 

 and that it was web-footed, and probably a fish-eater; and 

 that in the capture of its slippery prey it was aided by this 

 armature of the jaws. 



This bird is not to be confounded with the Ichthyosis of 

 Professor Marsh, which, indeed, is still more abnormal, in the 

 iact that the teeth, instead of being merely processes of the 

 jaw-bone, such as is seen to some extent in birds like the 

 merganser, are actually implanted in distinct sockets. Quar. 

 Jour. Geol. JSoc. of London, November 1, 1873, 511. 



FOSSIL EGG FROM THE CHERSONESUS. 



A fossil egg recently found in the Chersonesus has been 

 added to the treasures of the St. Petersburg Museum at a 

 cost of $850. It is 7.2 inches in length and 6 inches in the 

 shortest diameter; its capacity is reckoned equal to that of 

 forty to forty-four hen's eggs. It is thus larger than the egg 

 of the ostrich, but much smaller than that of the epiornis, 

 which has a capacity equal to that of 148 hen's eggs. Noth- 

 ing is said of the family to which this egg belongs. 12 A, 

 January 22, 1874, 235. 



RELATION BETWEEN THE COLOR OF BIRDS AND THEIR GEO- 

 GRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 



A communication has lately been made to the Academy 

 of Sciences of Paris, by Mr. Alph. Milne-Edwards, upon the 

 relations existing between the color of certain birds and their 

 geographical distribution, having special reference to the 

 fauna of Polynesia. His inquiries have embraced not only re- 

 searches into the absolute fact of melanism in the way of 

 black plumage, but also the degree to which this influence 

 has modified the true colors. Referring to the fact that birds 

 with black plumage are found, in all parts of the globe, in 

 certain families of wide geographical extent, the tendency to 

 melanism is exhibited decidedly only in the southern hem- 

 isphere, and especially in the portion embracing New Zea- 

 land, Papouasia, Madagascar, and intermediate regions. Thus, 

 in the swans, all the species of the northern hemisphere are 

 white; in New Holland, however, there is a species that is 

 entirely black, while in Chili and elsewhere in South Amer- 

 ica we have the Coscoroba swan, entirely white, with some 



