NOTICES OF NKW BOOKS. 407 



The Fundus oculi of Birds, especially as viewed by the Ophthal- 

 moscope : a Study in Comparative Anatomy and Physiolog-y. By 

 Casey Albert Wood, 182 pp., 61 coloured plates by Arthur Head, 

 F.Z.S., and 145 drawings in the text. Chicago : Lakeside Press. 

 1917. Price 15s. 



In the first year of the present century the Royal Society published 

 in its Transactions (vol. 11)4) a comprehensive monograph on "The 

 Comparative Anatomy of the Mammalian Eye, chiefly based upon 

 Ophthalmoscopic Examination," by Dr. Lindsay Johnson, illustrated by 

 coloured drawings of the fundus oculi of mammals by Arthur Head. 

 This was a fascinating and suggestive work which aroused the keenest 

 interest amongst ophthalmologists, and prompted the hope that allied 

 fields for research might be explored, to the increase of knowledge. But 

 the collection of the necessary data is a ^low and laborious process, and 

 very few are qualified to undertake a research of this nature, so that we 

 warmly welcome Dr. Casey Wood's volume on avian eyes, which, we 

 infer from internal evidence, has occupied considerably more than seven 

 years in the making, and in the preparation of which he has had the 

 valuable help of the same skilful artist who originally prepared the 

 drawings of mammalian eyes. 



The author in his wisdom — and we would that more followed his 

 example — summarizes his conclusions at the very outset, and of these 

 we would select two as of prime importance, viz. : — 



" The fundus oculi of Birds exhibits a great variety of areas of 

 distinct vision, and these correspond closely to the habits and habitat . . . ." 



" The appearances .... furnish entirely different coloured fundus 

 pictures, and it is frequently possible to recognize a species by viewing 

 its fundus oculi," from which the corollary emerges, "in future no 

 report upon a particular avian species can be held complete that ignores 

 the visual apparatus and especially the appearances of the fundus oculi 

 as shown by the ophthalmoscope." 



Dr. Casey Wood details the methods he has elaborated for the 

 collection, selection and preparation of material ; the examination of the 

 fundus in the living bird, post-mortem, and in preserved and sectioned 

 eyes, reviews the anatomy and physiology of the organs and tissues of 

 the bird's eye, passes to a consideration of the parts and organs visible 

 to the ophthalmoscope, and discusses their relative importance from the 

 point of view of function, and describes their combinations and 

 variations in different species. 



The detailed observations of various orders and species of birds which 

 follow show that the ophthalmoscopic appearances are so striking and so 

 consistent as to permit of the classification of fundi into two groups, 

 vascular and avascular, each containing five subdivisions. An atlas of 

 coloured drawings of avian fundi, each provided with a concise descrip- 

 tion, completes a volume for which we can find nothing but genuine 

 praise. 



Indeed we would fain conclude this brief notice by saying that the 

 result of the combined labours of author, artist and publisher leaves 

 nothing to be desired ; but the very excellence of this result impels us 

 to voice our further desire, and to quote a short sentence from the 



