732 SCIENTIFIC RECORD FOR 1893. 



in the Spheniscidae, on the other hand, these joints are relatively stiff, 

 and greater freedom of movement is permitted at the intertarsal articu- 

 lation or ankle joint. May we not regard this plantigrade condition of 

 the foot of the Penguin as a survival of a similar feature in the anatomy 

 of the ornithoscelidan ancestors of the Spheniscidse." 



The characteristics of the Spheniscids, as shown by Professor Watson 

 and others, are, in fact, so salient and co-ordinated in such number that 

 we can now scarcely doubt that they are the most aberrant of all liv- 

 ing birds, and even more remote from the general stock than are the 

 Ratitse or Ostrich and the like. If the living birds admit of subdivision 

 into orders, the Penguins appear to be best entitled to such segrega- 

 tion, and at least they should be isolated as an independent suborder. 

 The family of Spheniscids, in the opinion of Professor Watson, is divisi- 

 ble into three genera — (1) Spheniscus, with three species and a variety; 

 (2) Uudyptes, with two species, and of which the forms Eudyptes chrys- 

 ome from Tristan, the Falklands, and Kerguelen Islaud are distin- 

 guishable as so many varieties; and (3) Aptenodytes, with two species. 



A new species of Ostrich. — More than once it has been thought that 

 a second species of ostrich should be distinguished, but there was 

 always some uncertainty as to differential .characters. During the past 

 year, however, Dr. Richenow, of Berlin, has urged the specific distinct- 

 ness from the common African (Struthio camelus) of specimens sent 

 from the Somali country and given to them a characteristic name (Stru- 

 1hio molybdophanes). The naked parts are colored quite differently in 

 the two forms. The S. camelus has the exposed surfaces of the head, 

 neck, thighs, and legs of a flesh-red, while the corresponding parts of 

 8. molybdophanes are of a delicate slate-gray. The bill and gape of the 

 newly-discovered type is of a delicate pink hue, except at the tip, where 

 it is brownish. 



Incubation of the Ostrich. — A discussion respecting the incubation of 

 the eggs of the ostrich ensued in the Spectator and Nature in con- 

 sequence of a denial, by a critic of Mr. Romanes's "Animal Intelli- 

 gence," that the task of incubation is shared by both the sexes. It was 

 maintained by the critic, in accordance with the statements current in 

 books of natural history, that "female ostriches take no part in the 

 duty of incubation." Several respectable and eminent authorities, 

 however, adduced positive testimony to the concurrence of the females, 

 on some occasions at least. It appears to be well established that in 

 the Cape colony both sexes assist on the nest. In the words of Mr. E. 

 B. Biggar, who has reported on the ostrich-farms of the Cape colony, 

 "some will sit throughout with the most solicitous maternal instinct, 

 others manifest such anxiety that, when the hen has been a little late 

 in taking her morning turn upon the nest, he has gone out, and, hunt- 

 ing her up, has kicked her to the nest in the most unmanly manner. 



