Recent Literature. 87 



On the Moult of the Bill and Palpebral Ornaments in Fra- 

 tercula arctica.* — The remarkable changes which the bill and eyelids 

 of the Common Puffin undergo after the breeding season have been 

 hitherto unknown. The author's exposition of the matter reveals a 

 phenomenon as yet unparalleled among birds. Temminck acknowl- 

 edged (Man. Orn. 2d ed. ii, 932) his inability to describe the various con- 

 ditions of this common bird, and the efforts of subsequent naturalists to 

 supply the required information have been unavailing. The Puffin is a 

 bird which must be studied alive. Discovering that two islands off Brit- 

 tany, one in the Channel and the other at sea, harbored hundreds of these 

 birds during the breeding season, the author found the material for his 

 investigations. 



In the spring, when the birds come to breed on these islands, they are 

 all alike in plumage and ornamentation : the cheeks are grayish-white ; 

 the bill is high and thick opposite the nostrils ; there is a boss or bead 

 (ourlet, a " hem ") along the base of the upper mandible ; the go^'s is 



* De, la Mue du Bee et des Ornements Palpebraux du Macareux arctique, 

 Fratercula arctica (Lin.) Stepli. apres la saison des amours. Par le Docteur 

 Louis Bureau. Extrait du Bulletin de la Societe zoologique de France, 1877. 

 8vo. Paris, 1878. pp. 1-21, pll. IV, V. 



The translator presents this remarkable "and most important paper nearly en- 

 tire, though with the utmost condensation in language, to bring it within 

 limits. As reviewer, he need only witness the care and fidelity with which Dr. 

 Bureau's investigations were evidently conducted, and the clearness with which 

 the novel results are brought out. The paper is illustrated with several figures 

 on two plates, one of them colored and furnished with movable pieces gummed 

 on, on raising which both the process of the moult and its results are seen at a 

 glance. How much we learn — how little we know ! Here is a bird that 

 sheds part of its bill, and we only just now find it out, though the bird has 

 been "known" forages. The author's happy experience should provoke new 

 inquiry into the various curious North Pacific species, some of which may yield 

 up similar secrets. " Sagmatorrhina lathami," the " Saddle-billed Auk " was 

 made a new genus of, though now known to be nothing more or less than Ltmda 

 eirrhata. The remarkable case of Ceratorhina " suckleyi," — C. nonocerata, 

 now seems less singular, though we do not yet know the details ; perhaps the 

 "horn " may be moulted. Ptychorhamphus aleuticus has a wrinkled membrane 

 at base of the bill, which may be something different at other times. Simo- 

 rhynchua cristetollus, as known to us in full dress, has a curious horny formation 

 at the angle of the mouth, wanting in the so-called S. " dubius " and >S'. " tetra- 

 culus." Simorhynchus microceros has a curious knob or caruncle on the base of 

 the culmen, not seen in the so-called <S'. "pusil/us." M. Bureau's discovery 

 puts the family in an entirely new light. Besides its special application, it has, 

 what the author might have signalized, an interesting bearing on the homology 

 of feathers with other epidermal productions ; we may now speak of the 

 "moulting" of the horny covering of the beak, as well as of the feathers. — 

 Translator. 



