Recent Ornithological Publications. 509 



and thus its value is, to some extent, diminished. We have 

 more than once maintained in these pages that any taxonomic 

 scheme not based upon the aggregate of all the characters which 

 are afforded by animals must be an artificial one ; and if it is 

 thought beneath the dignity of Anatomy to regard some because 

 they ai'e superficial, so much the worse, we should say, for the 

 results to which that science may lead us. The author also 

 gives a concordance of Prof. Huxley's scheme with those of 

 Cuvier and of Mr. Gray, which will be found very handy to stu- 

 dents, though it contains some errors ; for instance, the first 

 group of CoracomorphcB, composed of the genus Menura only, 

 cannot be said to be " co-extensive " with Mr. Gray's Certhiidce, 

 The larger part of the publication, however, is taken up by a 

 condensed summary of the principal points to be noted in the 

 anatomy of Birds, which certainly gives more useful informa- 

 tion on the subject than any other English book with which we 

 are acquainted ; and the whole concludes with a most practical 

 chapter on dissection. Should the work reach a second edition, 

 as it deserves, we advise Mr. Morrell to consult the intro- 

 duction to Macgillivray's ' British Birds/ which will, we think, 

 furnish him with some further hints. We hope, too, he will 

 get a better printer, as well as cast aside the false delicacy which 

 makes him silent on one very important group of organs. Puris 

 omnia pura. 



There has for some years existed a Marlborough College 

 Natural History Society, warmly fostered, if not originally 

 founded ; by the Rev. T. A. Preston, one of the masters of the 

 school ; and this Society has published half-yearly reports show- 

 ing a laudable amount of activity among its members. At last 

 one of these young gentlemen has brought out a work on his 

 own account"^, which we here notice with pride as showing the 

 spirit of our public-school boys. It was of course not to be 

 expected that such a book would contain any real addition to 

 science, and it does not; but we are greatly mistaken if it has 



* Birds of Marlborough, being a contribution to the Ornithology of the 

 District. By Evebard im Thuen. Marlborough and London: 1870. 

 12nio, pp. 117. 



