Recently published Ornithological Works. 009 



111. 'Cassinia* 



[Cassinia, a Bird Annual. Proceedings of the Delaware Valley Orni- 

 thological Club of Philadelphia, no. vi. 1902. 00 pp. Price 50 cents.] 



This periodical, as its title denotes, is chiefly concerned, 

 with the ornithology of a single district; hut the Report on 

 the Spring Migration of 1902 by Mr. Witmer Stone and the 

 life of Edward Harris, a friend and companion of Cassin and 

 Audubon, are matters of Avider interest. 



112. Coburn on a supposed British Goose. 



[On a lost British Wild Goose, Anser paludosus (Strickland). By F. 

 Coburn. Zoologist, 1902, pp 441-448, pi. iii.] 



Mr. Coburn believes that he has rediscovered, the Long- 

 billed Carr-lag Goose (Anser paludosus) of Arthur Strickland. 

 A bird procured by him from St. Abbs Head on Feb. 25th, 

 1896, can be distinguished from A. segetum by its great 

 size, its enormously lengthened Swan-like neck, its large and 

 also Swan-like feet, and its remarkably and distinctly shaped 

 and coloured bill. 



113. Degen on Ecdysis. 



[Ecdj'sis, as Morphological Evidence of the original Tetradactyle 

 Feathering of the Bird's Fore-limb, based especially on the perennial 

 Moult in Gymnorhina tibicen. By Edward Degen. Trans. Zool. Soc. 

 xvi. pt. 8, pp. 347-418, pis. xxxvi.-xxxviii.] 



This is a complete description of the moult of the whole 

 plumage of Gymnorhina, with minute measurements, chrono- 

 logical observations, and calculations, arranged in many 

 tables and diagrams. It is a splendid " memoire pour servir/* 

 and the goal which the author has set before himself is very 

 ambitious, being nothing less than the reconstruction of the 

 Aving, with bones and quills complete, of the very first bird. 



Few will doubt that this problematic creature avus a descen- 

 dant of some five-iingcred reptile. But Archceopteryx, beyond 

 which we cannot possibly speculate, had already reduced its 

 hand to the three first fingers, which correspond with our 

 own and those of recent birds. Now we are expected to 

 believe, from the evidence of the moult of an Australian 



