3 o2 NATURAL SCIENCE. May, 



it transfers its abode to the lower part of the " stalk," and eventually 

 to the " roots " of the Sea-weed, which are not iridescent. 



The Queen's Ostrich. 



There has been a death-rate of forty per cent, among the 

 ostriches living in the gardens of the Zoological Society during the 

 last few weeks. To leave the delusions of statistics, that means that 

 two out of five ostriches have died. One of the deaths was that of a 

 very curious piebald male ostrich, the property of Mr. Rothschild. 

 The feathers of that fine bird were all black and white, so that the 

 general aspect of the creature was most curiously mottled. It is 

 being prepared for the Tring Museum, so that naturalists may still 

 have an opportunity of studying this most remarkable variation. 



The other death was that of the large male, presented to the 

 Society by the Queen some time ago. It was an unusually large and 

 fine bird, the length of the bones of the leg from the head of the femur 

 to the toe being over seven feet. A few months ago it was in magnifi- 

 cent condition, but during its illness the feathers became so broken 

 and draggled that the skin was useless. The bird was ill for 

 several weeks, gradually becoming weaker. For a number of days 

 before its death it refused to eat. 



A correspondent who happened to be present while the examina- 

 tion of the body was being made, informs us that the only organs 

 obviously diseased were the lungs. These showed signs of severe 

 broncho-pneumonia. At the post-mortem on an ostrich, the chief 

 excitement is the examination of the contents of the gizzard. Usually 

 there is a remarkable assortment of curiosities — glass bottles, coins, 

 and all manner of foreign bodies. The Queen's ostrich apparently 

 was a fastidious bird. Its stomach contained nothing but grass and 

 pebbles. 



Caricatures in Text-Books. 



The cheapness of electrotypes is not an altogether unmixed 

 blessing. When a book-illustration becomes popular, it is reproduced 

 over and over again ; and even if it happens to be proved erroneous, 

 an incalculable period is required to eradicate it from the most 

 approved treatises. Figures of vertebrate fossils are particularly 

 unfortunate in this respect. The Nestor of American geologists, the 

 sad news of whose death arrives as these pages go to press, had 

 just issued a fourth edition of his classic " Manual of Geology," and 

 even here there are some woeful relics of antiquity. Professor Dana's 

 book is admirably up-to-date in most matters, and it is refreshing to 

 see the multitude of new illustrations introduced ; but we may be 

 pardoned for exclaiming when we find among the figures of fossil 

 vertebrata so many defunct friends which we had hoped were already 

 decently buried. The Devonian Coccosteus restored as if it were a 



