174 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



Greenland and Iceland Falcons, as magnificent reproduc- 

 tions of the birds, and very fine pictures ; while Plate 24, 

 which contains the Woodpeckers, the Kingfisher and Roller, 

 appears to us somewhat incongruous, and justice is hardly 

 done to the brilhant coloration of the two last-named 

 species, nor do they seem happily placed in the same 

 surroundings as the Woodpeckers ; but this is, of course, 

 inevitable with the plan of the work. 



We shall look forward to the appearance of the next 

 volume, which we presume will contain the Game-birds 

 and Ducks, in. the representation of which Mr. Thorburn 

 is so justly famed. 



Wood on the Eyelids of Birds. 



[The Eyelids and Lachrymal Apparatus of Birds. By Casey A. 

 Wood, M.b. Eeprint from ' Ophthalmology,' Seattle, U.S.A., for July 

 1915, pp. 1-18, 11 figs.] 



Those interested in the muscular and nervous mechanism 

 of the birds' eyelids and lachrymal apparatus, together with 

 their structural details, or who are curious about the 

 arrangement by which the anterior surface of the eyeball 

 in birds is cleansed or protected from various forms of 

 injury, will find much instructive material in Dr. Casey 

 Wood's exhaustive paper on the subject above quoted. 



Most of the investigations forming the basis of this paper 

 were made in the physiological laboratories of Stanford 

 University in conjunction more especially with Professor 

 Slonaker, and the results were first reported to the 

 Ophthalmological Congress at Oxford in July 1914. 



It is probable that among the many interesting details 

 which Dr. Wood records, what will interest ornithologists 

 more especially is the fact that, unlike what obtains in Man 

 and many other Mammals, there is no true union of the con- 

 junctivae of the two lids in birds prior to hatching. " In the 

 Sparrow,'' says Dr. Wood, " and probably in all the Passeri- 

 formes, the lids are wide open during embryonic life ; but as 

 soon as the embryo is hatched the eyes are closed and remain 



