Review



147



was visited, and a really fine collection secured. The specimens were

temporarily accommodated in the Zoological Gardens, and a large

Pickford’s steam-wagon and trailer was needed to convey them to the

ship at Tilbury, where Bailey, the keeper of the Western Aviary, took

charge, and will, I hope, be able to land them all alive and well on the

other side.


D. Seth-Smith.



REVIEW


The Journal of the Museum of Comparative Oology. Santa

Barbara, California.


In the first number of this journal we are informed that the location

of the Museum was chosen chiefly because of the excellence of the

climate of Santa Barbara, its suitability to the preservation of bird’s

eggs, and its attraction for numerous visitors from all parts of the

civilized world. The bodies associated with the Museum are indicated

as follows : Board of Visitors, Fellows, Patrons, Members, Patron

Collectors, Field Members, Exchange Collectors, Corresponding

Members, and Authorized Collectors. An evidently excellent portrait

of the late Roland Gibson Hazard, formerly a greatly respected trustee

and honorary curator of the Museum, fronts the first page.


It is proposed gradually to bring together nests and eggs of all

known species of birds, in the interests of science and with the hope that

the study of them may throw light upon the evolution of species and

bird-relationships. Personally we fail to see how such extraordinarily

variable objects (both in form and colour) as are many birds’ eggs,

not to mention nests, can possibly demonstrate affinity between bird

species ; but we do think that other points of considerable interest

may be elucidated.


On p. 15 we read : “ Variation in nature, its presence or absence,

its range within the limits of a species, and, above all, its causes—these

are the problems to the solution of which comparative oology especially

addresses itself.” With this view I concur, and, as 1 pointed out (Avi-

cultural Magazine, 3rd Series, Vol. VII, pp. 193—G), I had reason to believe

that moist heat or its absence had a great influence upon the colouring



