Recently puhlislied Ornithological f Forks. 209 



volume is beautifully priuted and got up, and does credit 

 alike to the Smithsonian Institution and the author. We 

 observe with satisfaction that, although Major Bendire follows 

 the Check-list, he does not scruple to express his own opinion 

 as to the claims of some of the species and subspecies to the 

 rank accorded to them in that work.^ 



32. Brandes on the Bird's Gizzard. 



[Ueber den Termeintliclien Einfluss verJinderter Ernaliruiig aiif die 

 Struktur des Vogelmageus. Von Dr. G. Brandes. Biol. Ceutralbl. xvi. 

 pp. 825-838, cuts.] 



The well-known experiment of John Hunter — so often 

 quoted — on the supposed increase of thickness in the Gull's 

 gizzard produced by feeding the bird upon corn, and the 

 analogous experiments of Holmgren upon the converse change 

 in the Pigeon's gizzard when fed upon flesh, are subjected 

 in this paper to a double criticism. In the first place 

 Dr. Brandes made actual experiments upon a Gull and a 

 Dove, and came to a negative conclusion : that is to say, he 

 discovered no alteration. In the second place he suggested, 

 from a careful reading of the facts stated by the two autho- 

 rities for this supposed change, that pathological conditions 

 had been ignored. The gizzard of the Pigeon fed and dis- 

 sected by Holmgren was perforated by a splinter of glass, a 

 possibly sufficient cause for the alteration in the muscular 

 coat of the organ. Furthermore, Dr. Brandes compared (and 

 has figured in the paper) three gizzards of Larus argentatus, 

 which show considerable diff'erences in the thickness of their 

 muscular walls ; the thickest-walled gizzard of the three is 

 fully twice as thick as the thinnest. Until, therefore, we 

 are acquainted with the range of variation in this organ it is 

 idle to take isolated examples and assert that the thickness 

 has been increased by an abnormal food. 



33. Bull's Cruise of the 'Antarctic' 



[The Cruise of the 'Antarctic ' to the South Polar Regions. By II. J. 

 Bull. Loudon: 1896.] 



Mr. Bull went to the South Polar Regions as a pioneer 



* [Since this notice was in type we have learned, with gi-eat regret, th« 

 death of the author. See " Obituary,'" p. '294. — Edd.] 



