1898] SOME NEW HOOKS 419 



how it can be produced. A farther interest is given by the excellent 

 account of the observations and views of other writers upon the 

 subject, from Pater Kircher who described the escperimentv/m mirabile 

 in 1646 down to the present day, ami the value of this is enhanced 

 by the well-selected woodcuts with which the account is illustrated. 

 The whole forms a work which fully sustains the well-merited reputa- 

 tion Professor Verworn has derived from his previous publications. 



Francis Gotch. 



Mr Beddard on Birds 



The Structure and Classification of Birds. By Frank E. Beddard. 8vo, pp. 

 xx + 548. London: Longmans, Green & Go. 1898. Price 21s. 



This volume comes to us as a promise long delayed, and conjures 

 up visions of men whom many of us have never seen, but who yet live 

 in their works, and will live, as long as ornitholgy, in its deepest and 

 truest sense, continues to be studied amongst us. It represents three 

 occupants of the Prosectorial Chair of the Zoological Society of 

 London. It was begun by Garrod, and contemplated by Forbes, but 

 before either could come within a measureable distance of its com- 

 pletion they were summoned by death, and another entered into their 

 labours. It was for Mr Beddard, the present Prosector, to realise 

 what they had always hoped to do, and than him a more fitting- 

 person could not be found. Perhaps the highest praise we can give 

 will be to say that the result is worthy of all three, and that it would 

 have met with the entire approval of either of his predecessors. 



Although the work of Garrod and Forbes has been largely drawn 

 upon, Mr Beddard has incorporated the essence of all that is best 

 of his own work and that of his contemporaries. 



He divides his book into two parts — (1) General Structure; ('2) 

 Classification. Under the first head, among other subjects, he deals 

 with the coelom, convolutions of the intestines, and the syrinx in a 

 full and able manner, and these pages will be found to contain a 

 vast amount of most valuable matter. It surprises us, however, to 

 find that no figure is given of the passerine syrinx. 



The possession of feathers, an ambiens muscle, and an oil-gland are 

 the characters enumerated by Mr Beddard as peculiarly avian, the 

 two last having been acquired within the class. About the first and 

 last of these no one has ever expressed any doubt, but there are many 

 who have regarded the ambiens as reptilian in origin. The absence 

 of an oil-gland, it is pointed out, may be a primitive and not pseudo- 

 primitive character. The Struthiones are defined as birds in which the 

 gland is absent, though a page or two further on it is stated to be 

 present in Apteryoa, and correctly so. The primitive feathering of 

 birds Mr Beddard thinks was in the form of downs. "The persist- 

 ence <>f downs, therefore, in this hypothesis is so far a primitive 

 character, and the greater the persistence the more primitive the 

 bird." AVe certainly doubt whether this is not proving too much. 

 If this is true, then the Anseres, Accipitres, Charadrii, ami L'alli, for 

 example, would be more primitive than the Pico-passeres, or the 

 Struthiones and Galli Again "the fact that the contour feathers are 

 frequently preceded by downs" is not convincing proof that this was 

 the primitive covering of birds. Inasmuch as the down-feathers 



