i9io J Recent Literature. 3/3 



birds waddling down to the water, nearly half a mile distant, and fresh, 

 clean birds coming back from their bathing and feeding to take their turns 

 on the nests. When the young are hatched the parents have the double 

 task of feeding themselves, and carrying back food enough for their rapidly 

 growing chicks, and to quote Dr. Levick " so distended were their stomachs 

 that they had to lean backward as they walked to counterbalance their 

 bulging bellies." The young of course are fed by regurgitation directly 

 from the stomach of the parent. Dr. Levick presents most interesting 

 accounts of the mating, fighting, stealing of building material and other 

 activities of the rookery as well as the actions of the birds in the water, 

 their diving and leaping in and out onto the ice, and their play on the ice 

 cliffs and floes. The birds showed no fear of man and one could walk 

 through the rookery at pleasure. 



The student of animal behavior will find much interesting material in 

 Dr. Levick's book and many interesting statements are accompanied by 

 most convincing photographs of the birds going through their performances. 

 Probably no birds offer such opportunities for the study of nesting com- 

 munities and of the peculiar habits that have arisen from the close associa- 

 tion of such multitudes of individuals. 



An appendix describes the Skuas (Megalestris maccormicki) , and their 

 habits — those robbers of the rookeries who depend largely for food upon 

 the eggs and young which an inadvertent parent Penguin may leave for a 

 moment unguarded. There is also a short account of the Emperor Pen- 

 guin (Aptenodytes forsteri). 



Altogether Dr. Levick's book is unique, and will appeal to all ornithol- 

 ogists, — whether their specialty be, habits, behavior, oology or photog- 

 raphy — as well as to the public at large for whom these strange, erect, 

 man-like little birds have a strange fascination. — W. S. 



Miller on Ptilosis, with Special Reference to the Feathering of the 

 Wing. 1 — Mr. Miller is doing excellent work on the structure of birds with 

 regard to their systematic relationship. We shall need much additional 

 data before a satisfactory classification shall be drawn up and any facts on 

 comparative structure are welcome. In the present paper he considers 

 the ptilosis of the wing in various birds which have been received in the 

 flesh from the New York Zoological Park. Many points of interest are 

 brought out which contradict current statements, as for instance the pres- 

 ence of an aftershaft in some parts of the plumage of the Osprey, the 

 absence of which was considered a subfamily character, and the absence of 

 the eleventh primary in the Pigeons, a group said by Gadow to possess 

 eleven primaries. In commenting upon relationships Mr. Miller also calls 



1 Notes on Ptilosis with Special Reference to the Feathering of the Wing. By 

 W. DeW. Miller. Bull. Arner. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXIV, Art. VI, pp. 129-140. 

 March 19, 1915. 



