Nova Acta Academie Nature Curiosorum. 375 
Tribe III. PEpINORNITHES. 
Fam. 29. Ochteraptenodytes, (Didus, L.) 
30. Choraptenodytes, (Casuarius, Briss. Rhea, Briss.) 
31. Ammaptenodytes, (Struthio, L.) 
As we are not supplied with either the facts or the reasoning on which 
this ‘ Natural distribution of Birds’ is founded, it would be absurd to 
enter into a discussion of its merits. It certainly affords evidence of 
some ingenuity, if only in the construction of the Greek compounds with 
which, in common with many German systems of the present day, it 
abounds. Indeed it might almost be said, with reference to the classifi- 
cation before us, that in its present state, and until it shall have received 
further elucidation, it consists of little else but these new terms, many 
of which, to say the least, are sufficiently cramp. We have already 
[Zool. Journ. IV. 255] had occasion to refer to the extreme to which 
this propensity is carried on the part of our authour, and we shall find 
it, if possible, still more strongly marked in a paper on the arrange- 
ment of the Amphibia, also contained in the present volume. From 
the composition of such terms, however high-sounding they may be, 
there accrues little credit to a writer, and less advantage to science. 
How much more usefully would the learned authour have been employed 
in more minutely following up the observations on the distribution of the 
different families and genera over the surface of the earth, with reference 
chiefly to station and physical geography, which form the conclusion of 
his paper. The subject lightly touched upon in these concluding pages 
well deserves a profound investigation. 
An Essay, “* Ueber den Fabricischen Beutel der Végel,’’ by Dr. A. 
A. Berthold, is an attempt to determine the function of the organ known 
as the Bursa Fabricii, in Birds. The authour first passes in review the 
opinions held upon this subject by different writers: viz. by Fabricius 
ab Aquapendente, its discoverer, who conjectures that it serves in the 
female as a reservoir for the male semen; by Perrault, who compares 
to the anal saceuli and glands of certain Carnivorous Quadrupeds; by 
Schneider, who somewhat fantastically imagines that it receives and 
matures the eggs; and by Blumenbach, who attributes to it no definite 
function, but assumes that it properly belongs to the male, and is only 
BB 2 
