Vol. XI"! „ , T ., 



,g g Recent Literature. •? \ C 



in respect to the number, size, color, and markings of the eggs of the 

 same species of birds. In only rare cases, however, do the discrep- 

 ancies seem to be important, considering the purposely general character 

 of the statements referred to, and the variability in all these features the 

 eggs of the same species are so well known to present. 



In these comparative tables and the accompanying text, we have a 

 convenient summary of the subject, without any claim to the presenta- 

 tion of any new facts, or rarely any new generalizations. In the matter 

 of the latter, and in the way of general statements respecting the character 

 of the eggs and the nesting habits of many of the higher groups, quota- 

 tions are freely made from the writings of Professor Newton and Dr. 

 Sharpe. 



Very little attempt is made to use the facts of oology in a taxonomic 

 sense, beyond what has been done by previous authors, where in a few 

 cases, as pointed out by Newton, they may be employed to advantage. 

 Yet the fact remains that birds of certain groups, as genera or families, 

 in all other respects closely related, vary greatly as to the number, shape, 

 and coloration of their eggs, and in nesting habits. We have here, how- 

 ever, apparently an expression of our author's latest views on the 

 classification of birds, as respects the affinities of certain ordinal or 

 sub-ordinal groups, as we find the Owls (Striges) dissociated from the 

 other Birds of Prey and placed between the Woodpeckers and Goat- 

 suckers ; the Hummingbirds stand between the Goatsuckers and the 

 Swifts; and the families of the Passeres are very much transposed from 

 their usual order, the Finches (family Fringillidae) following the Parida?, 

 while next in order stand the Icteridae, Corvidoe, and Sturnidae, the 

 latter closing the series of Passerine birds. We have no doubt, however, 

 that the placing of the "so-called 'grosbeaks'" (p. 484) under the 

 Icteridae is a typographical mishap, as the paper contains at various other 

 points evidence of careless proofreading. 



Near the close of the paper we have various quotations from Newton, 

 of some general statements about birds' eggs, particularly as to the 

 manner of deposition of the shell-markings, which are, however, not 

 quite in accord with Dr. Gadow's recent statements on the same subject 

 (see Newton's Dictionary of Birds, Art. 'Embryology,' pp. 197, 198). 

 We have again a restatement, in substance, of Wallace's well-known ideas, 

 especially as elaborated by Dixon, respecting the coloration of birds' eggs 

 in relation to the color of the birds themselves and the character of the 

 nest in which the eggs are placed; and, under 'Concluding Remarks' 

 (pp. 487-493), an attempt to correlate "some of the oological peculiarities 

 of the birds of North America" with these generalizations. The con- 

 cluding paragraph of the paper is devoted to suggestions as to how to 

 study and describe the eggs and nesting habits of birds, which, like the 

 paper as a whole, scarcely rise above the plane of the common place, 

 being designed perhaps rather for the beginner than for the advanced 

 investigator. — J. A. A. 



