627 



Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard 

 College, Mass., Vol. VIII., pp. 95-284. 



Journal of theKoyal Society of New South Wales, Vol. XIV., 

 by the Society. 



Tables des comptes rendus des seances d ' Academie des Sciences 

 Paris, by the Society. 



Die Bevolkerung der Erbe, by Free Public Library Sydney. 



Louis Agassiz's Monograph of the Echinoderms, by Percival 

 Pedley, Esq., 



Zoology of the Voyage of the Coquille, with atlas of plates, 

 four volumes ; Grey's Handlist of Birds, three volumes ; Huxley's 

 Elements of Comparative Anatomy, one volume ; Macleay's 

 Catalogue of Australian Fishes, two volumes ; Transactions Ent. 

 Soc. of New South "Wales, two volumes ; by the Honble. William 

 Macleay, F.L.S., &c. 



papers read. 



Cranial deformation of new-born children at the Island 



mabiak, and other islands of torres straits, and of 



women of the s.e. peninsula of new guinea. 



By N. De Miklouho-Maclay. 



In April, 1880, visiting the islands of Torres Straits, I had the 

 opportunity of seeing, at Mabiak, an interesting operation per- 

 formed on the heads of new-born children. During the first weeks 

 after the birth of the child the mothers are accustomed to spend 

 many hours of the day compressing the heads of their infants in a 

 certain direction, with the object of giving them a quite conical 

 shape. I have seen it performed daily and on many children, 

 and have convinced myself that the deformation, which is 

 perceivable in the adults, is the result of this manual deformation 

 only. This observation was specially interesting to me, 



