Recently published Ornithological Works. 565 



Distribution in Scotland. By John James Dalgleish. Proc. R. Pliysical 

 Soc. Edin. vol. vii. p. 196.] 



Al though of wide distribution^ the Tree- Sparrow is some- 

 times unaccountably local, not only in the British Islands, 

 but in other countries comprised within its range. In Eng- 

 land it is seldom seen in towns, except at Berwick-on-Tweed, 

 where it nests freely ; nor is it to be considered a city-bird 

 on the continent ; yet it is abundant in the Jardin des Plantes 

 at Paris. Mr. Dalgleish has collected some new and in- 

 teresting facts respecting its distribution in Scotland, where 

 it has only been observed in comparatively recent years. 



110. Dollo on the Existence and Use of the " Third Tro- 

 chanter" in Birds. 



[Note sur la presence cliez les Oiseaux du " Troisieme Trochanter ' ' 

 des Diuosauriens et sur la fonction de celui-ci. Par M. L. Dollo. Bull. 

 Mus. R. d'Hist. Nat. Belgique, t. ii. p. 13.] 



The author compares the femur in Crocodiles, Dinosaurs, 

 and Birds with a view to determining the homologies of the 

 Dinosaurian third trochanter. In Crocodiles the " neck " of 

 the femur is obsolete, the " head " not being separated from 

 the body of the bone by any constriction. There is no 

 " great trochanter." In Birds and Dinosaurs, on the other 

 hand, the head of the femur is spherical and is suj)ported by 

 a distinct " neck." The great trochanter is large, forming a 

 strong ridge on the outer edge of the preaxial surface of the 

 bone. The condyles of the femur in the Crocodile also differ 

 remarkably from those of the other two groups, in both of 

 which the arrangement of these parts is identical. The only 

 part of the Dinosaurian femur not yet recognized in Birds is 

 the " third trochanter." M. Dollo finds, however, in those 

 birds which possess the femoi'o- caudal and accessory femoro- 

 caudal muscles, a ridge, situated near the middle of the bone 

 on the inner edge of its postaxial surface, which gives at- 

 tachment to these miiscles, and which corresponds in posi- 

 tion with the " third trochanter " of Iguanodon &c. A 

 similar ridge has been found in Hesperornis . 



The conclusion drawn from these observations is that the 



