1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 29:1 



forms number 7 of the thirty- second volume of the Bulletin of the 

 Museum of Couqximlirc Zoology at Harvard College, in which is 

 described and figured an entire and perfect specimen of an ostrich 

 egg which was found a few years ago by a Chinese farmer at Yao 

 Kuan Chuang, district of Hsi Xing, about fifty miles south south- 

 west from Kalgan. The find consisted of two specimens, one of 

 which was broken, and is perfectly well authenticated by the Rev. 

 Wm. P. Sprague, who visited the spot in company with the man 

 who found them and secured the unbroken specimen, which is now 

 in the Harvard Museum. According to Mr Sprague's account, 

 corroborated by references to Eichthofen's China, the deposit from 

 which the egg came was Loess. The egg itself presents almost 

 exactly the same appearance as the Eussian egg, of which a plaster 

 cast is preserved, and in the opinion of Mr Eastman it may be con- 

 sidered at present to belong to the same bird. The cubic contents 

 of the Chinese egg is 1896"90 c.cm. The occurrence of fossil 

 ostrich remains in the Loess of such widely separated regions as 

 Northern China and Russia has a direct bearing upon the distribu- 

 tion of Struthious birds, and gives rise to some important inferences 

 by Mr Eastman, regarding the past history of Eatite birds in 

 general. 



The Notes of Birds 



Many a wanderer in the country has wished that he could identify 

 the various birds that he hears singing on the hedges or calling in 

 the fields. Those who live in the country often know the call, but 

 can only identify the bird by its local name. Mr Charles Louis 

 Hett of Brigg has produced a small octavo volume, handy for the 

 pocket, which is to be obtained for half-a-crown of Messrs Jackson, 

 Market Place, Brigg, which gives these notes and calls arranged in 

 alphabetical order, most of which give a fair idea of the various 

 sounds produced. Further than this, Mr Hett has also given a list 

 of the popular local and old-fashioned names of British birds, under 

 each of which the notes are repeated, and closes his little volume 

 with a list of the scientific names of all birds accepted as British by 

 the British Ornithologists' Union in 1883. Equipped therefore 

 witli this volume, the bird lover may identify, with a certain ap- 

 proach to accuracy, many of the birds met with in his rambles, and 

 what is of greater importance, may, now he has a basis to go upon, 

 try and record more accurately the delusive and fugitive calls of 

 many of the species. 



Life Conditions of the Oystek 



The following conclusions of the Committee appointed by the British 

 Association to report on the elucidation of the life conditions of the 



