Recently published Uraitholoyicul Works. 1 19 



Malta and Gozo in the years 1886-1894, the number being 

 288. 



In Heft 3 are two papers on the Nutcracker during the 

 autumn and winter of 1893-94< : the first by Ritter Tschusi 

 zu Schmidlioffen, and relating to Austria- Hungary, while 

 the second is by Dr. Blasius and treats of the occurrences of 

 the bird from Russia westward. The individuals obtained 

 appear to have belonged to the Siberian form which Dr. 

 Blasius calls Nucifraga caryocatactes leptorhynchus . Freiherr 

 von Berg contributes notes on 34 species of birds noticed in 

 Alsace-Lorraine in 1885-1892, and his paper is furnished 

 with a map showing the stations for observation. Dr. Blasius 

 gives an account of a visit to San Sebastian, Guipuzcoa, with 

 the late M. Olphe-Galliard, when they examined the col- 

 lection of birds formed by Don Angel de Larinna; while 

 two short papers on a few birds observed in the Straits 

 of Gibraltar, and on 10 species met with at Reyk janes, 

 Iceland, conclude the Heft. 



24. Parker on the Dinornithidse. 



[On the Cranial Osteology, Classification, and Pliylogeny of the Dinor- 

 nithidce. By T. Jeffery Parker, D.Sc, F.R.S. Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 

 p. 373.] 



After the labours of Owen, Lydekker, and Hutton, it might 

 have been sui)posed that the subject of the Dinoruithidae 

 had been nearly exhausted. But this is by no means the 

 case. Lydekker and Hutton came to very different results 

 in their recent studies of this j;roup, one admitting four 

 genera and 19 species, and the other seven genera and 26 

 species. Moreover, they were by no means in accord as 

 regards nomenclature. Prof. Parker again has occupied him- 

 self specially with the cranial osteology of this group. Now 

 those who have studied Huxley's work on the class of birds 

 know how important an element is the skull in their classi- 

 fication, and how much better results it is likely to give 

 than the leg-bones. There can be no doubt, therefore, that 

 in devoting his principal attention to the comparatively 



