3-2 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



suit is, as might have been expected, that little birds in that country 

 are actually dying out ; some species have already disappeared, while 

 others are rapidly diminishing. 



TYPICAL FORMS OF BIRDS. 



At a late meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Mr. 

 Theodore Lyrnan read a paper on the forms of birds, the object of 

 which was to show how form, as depending on structure, may be rec- 

 ognized in this class, and may be expressed by measurements. He 

 had compared, for this purpose, a hawk and an owl, and a duck and 

 an auk, showing that the form is characteristic in each group, which 

 may therefore be looked upon as a natural family in the animal king- 

 dom. There is no essential difference between the bill and claws of 

 the hawk and owl ; there are, however, very striking differences in 

 the size and position of the eyes, the bulk of the lower body, and in 

 the length of the tarsus. Owls have large, prominent eyes, turned 

 to the front, a body bulky below, and generally a very short tarsus ; 

 their abundant plumage is so arranged as to bring out these features ; 

 the feathers of the head make a kind of face, in the midst of which 

 appear a half-buried beak and a pair of round, staring eyes ; the body 

 is large and heavy-looking, growing larger below, and apparently 

 ending in a partly concealed pair of feet ; the natural position is bolt 

 upright, on account of the short tarsi and the weight of the body in 

 front. Hawks have eyes of moderate size, rather sunken, and on the 

 sides of the head ; the body is elegant and compact, and the tarsus 

 generally long ; the plumage is commonly shorter and closer ; the or- 

 dinary position is with the body standing well up on the legs, and 

 inclined at a small angle from vertical. The owl gives the idea of 

 solemnity and gravity, the hawk that of alertness and vigor, but both 

 share the expression of ferocity. 



In the auks and ducks, both water-birds, the chief elements of dif- 

 ference are the plane of the bill with reference to that of the head, 

 the shape of the body, and the position of the legs. The ducks have 

 the bill flattened in a horizontal and the head in a vertical plane, and 

 the legs placed so far forward that they can move, though awkwardly, 

 on land ; the neck is long and slender, and the body short and chubby. 

 The auks have the head compressed in a horizontal and the bill in a 

 vertical plane ; the body is very long and flattened vertically ; the 

 leo-s are entirelv behind, and the tibia is so bound down by the inte^u- 



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ments, that the animal, on land, often tumbles forward, and assumes 

 when standing an upright position. 



THE HOME OF THE PETRELS (MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKEN). 



At a recent meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, Dr. 

 Bryant communicated the following notice of a visit to Green Island, 

 some ten miles out at sea, off the mouth of Chester Bay, Nova Scotia, 

 by the Rev. J. Ambrose, of Halifax. 



On June 28, 1860, he landed on the north side of the island. Not 

 a puffin or any other kind of bird was to be seen, save a large number 

 of "steering" gulls and some "mackerel" gulls flying overhead, 



