420 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 



which precede the contour-feathers are quite distinct from those 

 which form the down-feathers proper. The former in the ducks, 

 the fowls, megapodes, and tinamous, for instance, probably much 

 more nearly represent the primitive clothing, and are in the nature 

 of semiplumae, which as Garrod and the present writer have shown, 

 are degenerate contour-feathers. We incline to agree with Gadow 

 and to hold that the absence of down-feathers is primitive. 



The presence of teeth is undoubtedly primitive. " Arrested dental 

 papillae " are instanced as occurring in Phytotoma vara and in the 

 merganser. The present writer has figured and drawn attention to 

 similar structures in the tinamou and Opisthocomus. 



In describing the skull, no mention is made of the parasphenoid. 

 We are told that the " base of the brain-case is protected by a large 

 basitemporal which has sometimes {e.g. Apteryx) a long rostrum in 

 front." For sometimes ' always ' should surely be substituted. 

 The description of the hyoid is unintelligible. As regards the pelvis, 

 we entirely agree with Mr Beddard in favouring the view that the 

 pelvis of Aves most nearly resembles that of the dinosaurs. We 

 further agree with him in regarding the pectineal process as the 

 equivalent of the forwardly directed process of the dinosaurian pubis, 

 and the backward process as the homologue of the pubis proper in 

 the two groups. 



The classification of birds is a subject of peculiar difficulty, and 

 no two ornithologists can be persuaded to think alike on this matter. 

 Its importance in Mr Beddard's estimation can be gathered from the 

 fact that he has devoted two-thirds of his book to this question. And 

 in these pages will be found some extremely valuable and helpful 

 suggestions, which will afford food for reflection for a long time to 

 come. He divides the class into two sul (-classes, ' Ornithurae ' and 

 ' Saururae,' corresponding to the Neornithes and Archaeornithes of 

 Gadow. The Ornithurae are further divided into ' Anomalogonatae ' 

 and ' Homalogonatae.' But it is unfortunate that nowhere is the 

 latter group defined or are its boundaries fixed. As to the arrange- 

 ment of the sub-orders we will only say that we should have pre- 

 ferred to see the Tubinares placed next the Sphenisci, the Tinami 

 near the Galli, and the Accipitres nearer the Steganopodes and 

 Herodiones. 



Space forbids discussion of this book at greater length. Some 

 room must be left wherein to protest against any suspicion of captious 

 criticism or querulous fault-finding. Whatever statements we have 

 taken exception to have been selected not as an instance of many 

 such, but as blemishes to be removed should a second edition be 

 called for, which is highly probable. Those who have occasion to use 

 this book most will learn soonest to find out its sterling value, and 

 such will best appreciate the fairness of our remarks. W. P. P. 



" THOU WONDROUS MOTHER- AGE ! " 



The Wonderful Century : its Successes and its Failures. By Alfred Russel 

 Wallace. 8vo, pp. xii + 400, with 12 folding tables and frontispiece portrait. 

 London : Sonnenschein. 1898. Price 7s. 6d. 



This book is an appreciation of the nineteenth century, an attempt to 

 look at it in its relations to the whole history of man as it will appear 



