ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 539 



Accipitres, and Anseres, on the other. Like the Steganopodes 

 (excepting the Phtethontidai), the penguins have suppressed the 

 external nares completely, except in Sphenisms, in which, however, they 

 have ceased to be functional. In penguins, the sealing up of the nares 

 has been brought about simply by the growing together of the rham- 

 phothecal horny tissue surrounding the aperture, leaving the osseous 

 nares unaffected. This peculiarity of closing the nares appears to have 

 been the common heritage of all the forms belonging to the great 

 Steganopod branch of the Avian tree, except the Colymbi. In their 

 pterylosis, the penguins are the most primitive of all the Carinat^, and, 

 after them, the Steganopodes show the broadest pteryla. There can be 

 little doubt that the primitive beak-sheath of penguins was composed of 

 several separate pieces. Thus the deep lateral grooves point to distinct 

 lateral plates. 



A very remarkable fact is that the penguins develop two successive 

 down plumages before assuming the normal definitive feathers. It 

 would seem that the full sequence of plumages is represented by (1) 

 neossoptyles, composed of (a) pre-pennse (divisible into protoptyles and 

 mesoptyles) and {b) pre-plumulffi ; and by (2) teleoptyles, or definitive 

 feathers. Another remarkable fact is that, in moulting, the feathers are 

 not cast a few at a time, but over large areas the feathers lose all direct 

 attachment to the body, and stand out therefrom at right angles or 

 .thereabouts. 



Bird Mating.* — R. W. Shufeldt summarises the known facts 

 regarding mating among birds. Mating habits appear to be indepen- 

 dent of phylogenetic relationship. Birds are polygamists, monogamists, 

 and in certain cases are given to practices simulating polyandry. At 

 present we have no knowledge of the origin, causes, and, in the majority 

 of cases, the needs of these various habits. 



Genus Aramides.f — Outram Bangs publishes an account of the 

 members of this genus of woodrails occurring north of Panama. In 

 all species the sexes are alike in colour, and there are but slight 

 individual or seasonal differences. Some species, A. axillaris and its 

 allies, have a juvenile plumage, still worn when the bird is nearly fully 

 grown, that is quite different in colour from the livery of the adults. 

 Other species apparently do not have a young plumage that is very 

 different in colour from that of the adults. 



Marine Fishes of Southern California. J — E. C. Starks and E. L. 

 Morris give a list of 2-46 marine fishes occurring on the Californian 

 coast, south of Point Conception and within the 50-fathom Hue.- Dis- 

 tributional notes are given in all cases ; there are many new and several 

 amended descriptions of species. 



United States Manimals.§ — E. A. Mearns has issued an exhaus- 

 tive report on the mammals of the Mexican boundary of the United 



* Amer. Naturalist, xli. (1907) pp. 161-75. 



X Tom. cit., xli. (1907) pp. 177-87. 



t Univ. Californian Publications, iii., No. 11 (1907) pp. 159-251 (1 pi.). 



§ Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Nat. Museum, Bull. 56 (1907) 530 pp., 126 figs 



