142 Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 



e. g., the structure of its egg-shell; so that on the whole the 

 relationship between them is regarded as less remote than 

 that existing between the j3j]pyornithidae and the other 

 Ratite families. 



In conclusion, it is suggested that the Dromseidse and 

 Casuariidse, which, especially the former, are, in some respects, 

 the least specialized Ratites, may be the recent representa- 

 tives of a parent stock, from which, on the east, arose the 

 Dinornithidse and Apteryx ; while, on the west, the ancestors 

 of Struthio and yEpj/ornis branched off, the former making 

 their way into Africa through India and Arabia, the latter 

 reaching Madagascar by way of Southern India. 



The Mantis 0/ Archseopteryx. — In ^Natural Science' for 

 October last (vol. iii. p. 275) Dr. C. H. Hurst announces an 

 important discovery, if true. After drawing attention to 

 several inaccuracies in Steinmann and Doderlein's figures of 

 the Berlin specimen of the Archceojiteryx, he points out that 

 the three-clawed digits so well exhibited in that specimen do 

 not (and, in his opinion, never did) support the primaries, 

 which, therefore, must have been carried by digits iv. and v. 

 (or one of them) . The result, if this view were accepted, would, 

 follow that the two large digits of the ordinary bird's-wing 

 are digits iv. and. v., and that the " ala spuria" is a remnant 

 of one or more of the other digits of the pentadactyle limb. 

 This being granted, birds may have had a much closer con- 

 nection with Pterodactyles than has hitherto been suspected. 



Dr. Hurst^s conclusions rest mainly upon the gratuitous 

 assumption that the large digit or digits in the Berlin 

 Archaopteryx, which formerly supported the primaries, lie 

 buried in the slab beneath. Until this can be definitely 

 proved by actual evidence, we must take leave to doubt the fact, 

 and to prefer the generally accepted theory of the elements 

 of the bird's-wing to the revolutionary views of Dr. Hurst. 



Obittiary : Dr. Emin Pasha, Dr. George Bennett, and 

 Pastor Baldamus. — There can be now little doubt of the 

 death of our Foreign Member, Dr. Edward Schnitzler, com- 



