1899] ANOTHER BOOK ON BIRDS 401 



shown this to be quite the reverse of true ; but, strangely enough, this work is 

 not referred to in this book. Although we are told that the syrinx is tracheo- 

 bronchial, no mention is made of the median vertical septum running up the 

 trachea in some penguins and in some petrels ; moreover, there are no feathers in 

 the penguin's wing which can be distinguished as primaries, there are apteria 

 on the body, and the feathers are not scale-like. The number of times this last 

 statement has to be contradicted is positively irritating. 



No mention is made of the fact that in the grebes and some storks there 

 are twelve primary remiges ; on the contrary, the order Ciconia is definitely 

 stated to have eleven. The adults and young of the order are said to " possess 

 uniform down," whatever this may mean. 



The nestlings of tinamous are birds "which run from the shell." The nestling- 

 down is described as " simple, as in Ratite birds " ; and this in spite of a paper 

 in the "Ibis" for 1895, pp. 1-21, 507-9, on the pterylography of the tinamou, 

 drawing attention to the fact, amongst other things, that the nestling-down of 

 the tinamou was the most complex of all hitherto described. This, like that 

 of the Anseres and Galli, as has been pointed out by the same writer, is further 

 remarkable in having a large aftershaft rivalling that of the main shaft. The 

 nestling-down of Rhea again has an aftershaft, a fact pointed out by Dr. Gadow 

 in the " Dictionary of Birds," and which, strangely enough, Mr. Evans has 

 overlooked. The curious succession of the remiges of the nestling Galli and of 

 Opisthocomus find no mention in this book. But, enough, as to sins of omission. 

 "An introductory chapter," we are told in the preface, "has been written 

 to meet the claims of the present day, on the external and to a limited extent 

 on the internal structure of birds." We must refuse to believe that " the claims 

 of the present day " will be satisfied with the meagre and often incorrect infor- 

 mation to be gathered from the pages of this work, on the external and internal 

 structure of birds. 



In this introductory chapter, and throughout the book, the word "maxilla" 

 is used for the whole upper jaw, an abuse of this word which is absolutely 

 indefensible. The section devoted to feathers is very inadequate, even for this 

 book. No mention is made of semiplumae, or filoplumae, or any distinction 

 drawn between nestling-down and down feathers proper. The pterylosis of the 

 wing is not touched upon, nor is any reference made to quinto- or aquinto- 

 cubitalism, or the exceedingly interesting work on " Overlap " by Goodchild. 



In describing the skeleton we look in vain for any reference to the forms of 

 the palate, or of the nostrils (holo- and schizorhinism), or to the supra-orbital 

 grooves so characteristic of groups such as the penguins, petrels, divers, gulls, 

 and plovers. To describe the index digit of the penguin as fusing with the 

 pollex is like talking of " the tail that wagged the dog !" 



Two pages are devoted to terminology. The value of these is hard to see. 

 Some words, such as allantois, amnion, procnemial (why not also ecto- and ento- 

 cnemial) appear to occur nowhere else in the book. The definitions of amnion, 

 broncho-tracheal and tracheo-bronchial syrinx, are all more or less unintelligible. 

 Eleutherodactyl and syndactyl are not mentioned, though other forms of the 

 avian foot are. 



Although Mr. Evans has drawn so largely upon the " Dictionary of Birds " 

 for the facts embodied in this compilation, he has caught nothing of its style. 

 The crisp and elegant English of that book is here conspicuous by its absence. 

 We cull the following from his description of the Rhea : — " The hens secured by 

 each of the cocks lay together in a mere depression in the soil with very little, 

 if any, lining ; the eggs numbering from twenty to thirty ..." And again, in 

 describing the habits of the Norfolk plover, he writes : — "The mournful whist- 

 ling cry ... is chiefly heard at twilight, when the bird feeds upon worms, 

 insects, molluscs, or even reptiles, frogs, and mice." And again, on the same 

 page : — ■" The forms with almost uniform breasts, and a black patch or line over 

 the eye." Surely we have a right to expect something better than this of a 



