Recently published Ornithological Works. Ill 



of its genera, a fact iinparallelled elsewhere on the eartVs 

 surface. 



We offer our best congratulations to the authors for having 

 brought this important and profusely illustrated work to a 

 successful conclusion, A few novelties may still be picked 

 up in Madagascar, but M. Grandidier^s care and enei'gy will 

 render it veiy difficult to add much more to the list of species 

 of this singular avifauna. 



16. Nathusius on the Position of the Egg in the Oviduct. 



[BesteLt eine ausnaliinslose Kegel liber die Lage der Pole des Vogel- 

 eies im Uterus iin Verhaltniss zur Cloakenmiindung ? Von W. v. 

 Natliusius. Zool. Anz. 1885, p. 415. — Ueber die Lage des Vogeleies im 

 Uterus. Von W. v. Nathusius. Ibid, p. 713.] 



Is there an invariable rule as to whether the large or small 

 end of the e^g is in front in the bird's oviduct before extru- 

 sion ? It would have been supposed that such a simple 

 matter of fact would be easily ascertained. Dr. Taschenberg 

 has asserted that the big end always comes out first. Herr 

 V. Nathusius was at first of opinion that there is no definite 

 rule on the subject ; but in his second note he admits that 

 the experiments of Dr. Erust, of Caracas, have shown that 

 the big end is commonly in front. 



17. Nathusius on the Egg of Struthiolithus. 



[Ueber das fossile Ei von Struthiolithus chersonensis, Brandt. Von W. v. 

 Nathusius. Zool, Anz. 1886, p. 47.] 



Herr v, Nathusius has examined the microscopical structure 

 of the fossil egg described by Brandt in 1872 as Struthiolithus 

 chersonensis *. His verdict is, that Struthiolithus was cer- 

 tainly a Struthionine bird and, so far as its eg^ is concerned, 

 not generically separable from Struthio. On the other hand, 

 Apteryx, as judged by its egg, has no relationship to the 

 Struthiones. 



* Found in 1857 in an old river-bed (a so-called balka) near Malinowka 

 in the Government of Cherson. It measured about 18 centim. in length 

 and 15 in diameter, and is therefore considerably larger than any Ostrich's 

 egg rCf. Brandt, Mel. Biol. Ac. So, St, P6t, t. v. no. 5). 



