THE GAEE-FOWL AND ITS niSTOEIANS. 485 



sucli specimens possessed, and tliey have been transmitted to England. 

 The first which arrived formed the subject of Prof. Owen's memoir, 

 the title of which we quote at the head of this article ; the second, 

 mounted as a skeleton, is now deposited in the national collection, 

 and except an example in the Osteological gallery of the Jardin des 

 Plantes, is the only one to be seen in any public Museum in 

 Europe. 



"VVehave no space to ejiter into details respecting the bony struc- 

 ture of this bird. ■ Our readers will find it admirably described in 

 Prof. Owen's paper, and it is only when that distinguished osteolo- 

 gist comes to take a comparative \dew of the skeletons of AIca im- 

 pennis and its real or reputed allies^ that we feel called upon to pro- 

 test against the necessity (as it has seemed to the author) for his 

 showing at length that the Alcidce have no intimate connection at 

 all with the SpheniscidcB. Such a notion, if we are not mistaken, 

 has for some years been given up by all ornithologists, except a few 

 who are wedded to obsolete ideas of classification, and whose opinions 

 will certainly gain no new supporters. It seems to us, indeed, that 

 the resemblance between the Auks and the true Penguins is merely 

 one of analogy, just such as obtains between the Swallows and the 

 Swifts, the two groups having little in common except certain habits, 

 and their structure, both internal and external, being as widely dif- 

 ferent. Nevertheless, it is, we acknowledge, extremely satisfactory 

 to find this view of the case supported by an authority so high as 

 that of Prof. Owen. "We must also complain that the plates which 

 illustrate this valuable memoir, are extremely meagre and inartistic, 

 if we may use the term to mean that the art displayed fails to give 

 an accurate idea of the originals. They make us long for the time 

 when Mr. Pord's services will be again at the disposal of osteologists, 

 or for a worthy rival of that unsurpassed delineator of bones to 

 spring up. An outline conveying such a mistaken impression as that 

 of fig. 3, in Plate 52, is worse than no figure at all, and we trust the 

 draughtsman may never again have the opportunity of marring the 

 deservedly great reputation which the plates in the ' Transactions ' 

 of the Zoological Society have ever enjoyed. Further, without being 

 considered captious, we hope we may be allowed to express our in- 

 ability to comprehend the principle on which the various subjects 

 pourtrayed have beeii selected. "We cannot imagine (and Pi'of. 

 Owen's letterpress conveys to us no friendly hint on this point) why 

 the osteology of so very abnormal an Alcine form as JJria gri/Ue should 



