^°'i^7^^n Rece7it Literature. 405 



"John Tappen was one of the solid men of Boston, a philanthropist, 

 greatly interested in anti-slavery and church extension, next door neigh- 

 bor and friend of Edward Everett and mj father's particular friend. Of 

 Mr. Greene I have no especial knowledge. His name occurs in connec- 

 tion with the forwarding of scientific work." 



There is nothing in' the Emmons list to show that Audubon added any 

 notes to it. — Ruthvex Deane, Chicago, III. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Pycraft on the Morphology of the Cassowaries and their Allies. ^ — 

 In this important paper, which appears as the second part of Roths- 

 child's 'Monograph of the Genus Casuarius,' Mr. Pycraft has endeavored 

 to ascertain, so far as possible, the relations of the Casuafiidse to the remain- 

 ing ' Struthious ' forms and the position of these with regard to the Car- 

 InatK. We entirely agree with the author that the attempt has not been 

 fruitless, and we heartily second Mr. Pycraft's thanks to Mr. Rothschild 

 for entrusting the work to his hands. 



The bulk of the paper is devoted to a description of the pterylosis and 

 anatomical characters of the various forms under consideration, presented 

 in Mr. Pycraft's usual clear and concise style. The repetition of the 

 detailed descriptions of anatomical characters that have been given by 

 other writers has been purposely and advantageously omitted, but a list 

 of these papers is appended; while practically all the information is 

 given that one would be likely to use. Moreover there is a carefully pre- 

 pared key to the osteology of the Palseognathse, based on the characters 

 afforded by the adult skeleton, in which are set forth the distinctive char- 

 acters of the existing genera and species of Struthious birds and Apteryges 

 as shown by the skull, vertebral column and limbs. The Dinornithidae, 

 ^-Epyornithidie and Crypturi are diagnosed as to family characters only. 



/The gist of the paper is to be found in the introductory remarks and 

 final discussion of the phylogeny of the Palseognathae. In the union of 

 the Tinamous and 'RatitK,' which the author regards as a real need, he 

 is in accord with Gill, and with Stejneger and other American ornitholo- 

 gists who have long held that while the division of birds into Ratitse and 

 Carinatse might be convenient it was not founded on a good morphological 



'On the Morphology and Phylogeny of the Palaeognathae (Ratitae and 

 Crypturi) and Neognathae (^Carinatse). By W. P. Pycraft. Trans. Zool. 

 Soc, London, Vol. XV, Fart V, No. 6, pp. 149-290, pll. .xlii-xliv, December, 

 1900. 



