442 Chronicles of Science. [July, 
thoracic and abdominal cells, a continuous stream of air is made to 
play upon the naked capillaries of the lungs. The hollow bones 
Dr. Drosier believes are filled with air not for respiratory purposes, 
but to remove the moisture from the interior of the bones, which 
would otherwise accumulate and render them heavy. Dr. Drosier 
is intending to extend his researches and publish them in a volume. 
Mr. Harry Seeley has lately published an article in the ‘ Annals 
and Magazine of Natural History,’ entitled “An Epitome of the 
Evidence that Pterodactyles are not Reptiles, but a new Sub-class of 
Vertebrate Animals allied to Birds (Saurornia).” Mr. Seeley is a 
clever and persevering osteologist, and has been for many years 
working at the Pterodactyles, which are so numerous in the Cam- 
bridge Greensand deposits. He has in this paper succeeded in 
showing that the affinities between Pterodactyles and Reptiles are 
very little stronger than those between Pterodactyles and Birds ; in 
fact, that though these flying lizards resemble birds and reptiles 
more than they do any other vertebrates, yet the resemblance is 
very small, and hence he separates them as a distinct group, 
Saurornia. It is, nevertheless, quite a question for consideration 
whether Pterodactyles depart more from the exceedingly plastic 
Reptilian type than do the Chelonians or Ophidians, or than do the 
Bat and Whale from the Mammalian type. It must be borne in mind 
that while Birds, of all Vertebrata, are the most fixed and uniform 
in their general structural form, Reptiles are among the least so; 
and hence it is no such astounding anomaly to discover a winged 
lizard, while the occurrence of a lizard-like bird might be deemed 
improbable. . 
M. Victor Fatio has been writing on the various modes of 
Coloration of Feathers. The question of changes of plumage has 
presented itself im various ways. Is a new coloration always the 
peculiarity of a new feather? or may the coloration sometimes 
undergo alteration in the same tissues? It is very certain that 
when a feather has once grown, its colour cannot be affected by 
nutrition, inasmuch as all communication between it and the blood- 
vessels is at an end—the pulp having dried up. M. Fatio there- 
fore attributes the alteration in the colour of completely-grown 
feathers to the humidity of the air, temperature, light, movements, 
and the grease of the bird. The modifications produced by these 
agents are the various development of certain parts, the solution 
and diffusion of the imternal pigment and the rupture of the 
external parts. 
M. Gerbe has communicated some important papers lately to 
the French Academy on the larve of marine Crustacea. With 
regard to his observations on the vascular and nervous systems, 
there has been some little contention, since M. Milne-Edwards has 
inserted a note in the ‘Comptes Rendus,’ stating that he has much 
satisfaction in finding that M. Gerbe’s results accord entirely with 
