Vol l8 * VI ] Recent Literature. 363 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Pycraft on the Osteology of the Impennes. 1 — Mr. Pycraft's second 

 ' Contribution to the Osteology of Birds' treats the Penguins in the same 

 thorough manner that his previous paper dealt with the Steganopodes. 

 We have a detailed account of the skeleton, including that of the young, 

 and this is followed by keys to the genera and species based on characters 

 furnished by various portions of the adult skeleton. It is gratifying to 

 have one more group of birds whose genera are based on osteological 

 characters, also gratifying to see Ratita? and Carinatie put in quotation 

 marks. 



Like Mr. Grant in the British Museum Catalogue, Mr. Pycraft admits 

 six genera in this compact group of birds and these, as indicated by the 

 diagram, have, with the exception of Eudyptula, which has lagged a little, 

 become pretty evenly differentiated from the supposed ancestral form. 

 To use an hibernicism, Mr. Pycraft gives us his conclusions at the begin- 

 ning, where he states that, while the fore limb represents the high-water 

 mark of skeletal specialization, the skull and other portions of the skele- 

 ton being much less specialized, the Penguins do not furnish us with 

 any facts of great importance or carry us beyonrl the confines of the class. 

 The distinctness of the metatarsals, a feature approached by Fregata, is 

 alluded to and it is considered that they represent a halfway stage between 

 the primitive, completely separate metatarsals on the one hand, and the 

 highly-specialized cannon bone on the other, where the three metatarsals 

 are all merged to form a single shaft. 



It is pointed out that the Penguins are not plantigrade, but is Mr. 

 Pycraft quite correct in saying that the legs are comparatively little used 

 for the support of the body ? — F. A. L. 



Montgomery on the Food of Owls. — In the 'American Naturalist' 

 for July, 1899, 2 Mr. Montgomery gives the results of his observations on 

 the feeding habits of two species of Owls, — the Short-eared Owl {Asio 

 accipitrinus) and the Long-eared Owl (A. zvilsoniamis), the locality being 

 the vicinity of West Chester, Pa. His observations are novel in being 

 based not upon the stomachs of Owls killed, but upon their ' food pellets ' 

 collected from the ground beneath their roosting trees. Four Long- 



•Contributions to the Osteology of Birds. Part II. Impennes. By W. P. 

 Pycraft. Proc. Zool. Soc, London, Dec. 13, 1898. 



2 Observations on Owls, with particular regard to their Feeding Habits. By 

 Thomas H. Montgomery, Jr. Am. Nat., Vol. XXXIII, July, 1899, pp. 563— 



572. 



