298 NOTES 



undoubtedly in a very uncomfortable position, with the bead 

 pushed between one wing and leg, and this is what makes it 

 move and thrust the bill against the shell of the egg. The open- 

 ing and closing of the bill, which is seen in the young pigeon 

 within the egg, is supposed to be due to gasping for air." To 

 determine whether the chick turned itself round by its bill or 

 by its feet, Reaumur tried the experiment of breaking away the 

 shell in advance of the bird's bill, so that the bill had nothing to 

 push against; "the consequence was, that each chick was sooner 

 released from confinement than if it had had to effect its own 

 exit." From which, Reaumur concluded that the turning was 

 probably performed by means of the feet. 3 



This general method of breaking the shell, which we have 

 seen to be common to the domestic fowl and pigeons, Reaumur 

 found to hold also for ducks, and he thought it probable that 

 it was common to all birds. 4 Observations of the hatching 

 activity of wild forms are, naturally, rare. 5 The indications are, 

 that the type of behavior which we have described is common 

 to most if not all the Carinatae. But in the ostrich, although 

 the posture of the young within the egg 6 much resembles that 

 in the Carinatae, there are some considerations, one of which 

 is the extremely hard egg-shell, which lead one to suspect that 

 the mode of exit of the young ostrich must differ from that\)f the 

 young carinate bird. 



3 Quoted in Rennie. Op. rit., pp. Ki7-l(i8. 

 1 Rennie. Op. cit., p. 171 . 



5 I have happened upon only two, each recorded all too briefly. Hudson, W. 

 H. The Naturalist in La Plata. London, 1892. Page 112 records observed hatch- 

 ing of the Jacana. Moore, R. T. The Least Sandpiper During the Nesting Season 

 in the Magdalen Islands. The Auk, Vol. 29, N. S., April, 1912. Page 218 records 

 observed hatching of this Pisobia. 



6 Beebe, C. W. The Bird, its Form and Function. New York, 190G. See figs. 

 370 and 371. 



