Recent Ornithological Publications. 395 



birds northwards and southwards past our shores taking place 

 regularly, both in early summer and in autumn. 3rd. Of these, 

 Richardson's Skua alone has bred in this island ; its autumnal 

 migration occurring annually in the month of October. 4th. 

 That BufFon^s Skua {Lestris buffonii) has been seen, and speci- 

 mens procured on its migration north, in the month of June. 

 5th. That the Pomarine Skua (L. pomarinus), at present our 

 rarest species, has been once, at least, met with on migration 

 south in October. 6th. That the specimens of the Pomarine 

 Skua hitherto procured have been, for the most part, immature 

 birds of the autumnal flight, being stragglers unable to keep up 

 with the flock ; but that the Long-tailed Skuas have been mostly 

 mature birds on the autumnal migration, which have probably 

 used this island merely as a resting-place. 



Our correspondent, Mr. George Dawson Rowley, has become 

 the fortunate purchaser of a perfect egg of the extinct gigantic 

 bird of Madagascar {^pyornis maximus), and has printed the 

 information he has collected concerning this subject in the form of 

 a pamphlet, published by Messrs. Triibner*. The egg in ques- 

 tion " was found at Mananzari, on the east coast of Madagascar, 

 at a depth of forty-five feet, in a hill of ferruginous clay, by some 

 Malgaches digging for an iron-mine." Its shape is an ellipse, 

 of which the major axis measures 12j and the minor 9| inches: 

 its size is therefore nearly twice as great as that of an ordinary 

 Ostrich's egg. The shell is of great strength. Its surface is 

 " much stained with clay,'^ but was " probably the same when 

 first laid as that of the Ostrich, viz. a pale yellow white." In 

 granulation it resembles the coarsely grained eggs of the Ostrich, 

 but " the indentations are vastly coarser and larger." 



Mr. Rowley has extracted, in his pamphlet, much of the pre- 

 viously published information concerning the ^pyornis, as given 

 in the writings of Geoff'roy St.-Hilaire, H. E. Strickland, and 

 Professor Owen, and supplies us with a very fair resume of the 

 whole subject. 



* A Paper upon the Egg of JEpyornis rnaxhnus, the colossal Bird of 

 Madagascar, by George Dawson Rowley, M.A. London, Triibner & Co., 

 1864: 16 pp. 



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