500 Miscellaneous. 



instead of a nucleolus, there is formed at the centre of the nucleus 

 a whole group of several dozens of small round balls, which collect 

 into a sphere placed at some distance from the walls of the nucleus. 

 Afterwards these balls continue to divide for some time, thus 

 becoming more and more minute at the same time that their 

 number reaches several hundred. During all the time that these 

 phenomena are being produced the ovum enlarges and attains its 

 definitive diameter, which is nearly twenty times that of the ento- 

 dermic cells which gave origin to the ovum. 



The definitive aspect of the perfectly mature ovum before fecun- 

 dation is that of a sphere of granular protoplasm with a central and 

 perfectly uniform nucleus, showing not the smallest trace of any 

 nucleolus whatever. The hundreds of granules into which the 

 nucleolus has been divided have become dissolved in the protoplasm 

 of the nucleus. 



Summary. — 1. The ova of Encope are developed from entodermic 

 cells. 



2. The nucleolus acquires the form of a chaplet twisted upon 

 itself ; the grains of the chaplet become isolated and continue to 

 divide. 



3. The mature ovum before fecundation has no longer the least 

 trace of a nucleolus in its nucleus, which is entirely homogeneous. 

 — Comptes Rendus, April 20, 1880, p. 1012. 



Observations on the Megapodes. By M. E. Oustalet. 



A commission given to me by the Ecole des Hautes Etudes 

 having enabled me to visit the great museums of England and 

 HoDand, I have been able to complete the investigations that I had 

 undertaken upon the Gallinaceous birds of the family Megapodiidoe, 

 and I have ascertained that the number of species admitted by 

 modern ornithologists is too large, and may be reduced to about 

 twenty-five. 



By a comparative study of skeletons of Talegallas, Maleos (Mega- 

 cephalon), Megapodes, Guans {Penelope), and Guinea-fowl, I have 

 also ascertained that the creation of a separate group, proposed by 

 Prof. Huxley*, that of the Peristeropodes, including the two families 

 Cracida3 and Megapodiidae, was fully justified ; but that the Pintados 

 present certain analogies of structure with these birds which 

 that learned zoologist has not, perhaps, sufficiently brought out. 



On dissecting a Talegalla I met with certain arrangements indi- 

 cated by Dr. Garrod in the Maleo ; but, on the other hand, I 

 remarked that other peculiarities in the mode of insertion of the 

 muscles of the wing and leg were not of so much zoological import- 

 ance as that anatomist thought it right to ascribe to them. 



Again, on examining a collection recently sent by M. Bruijn I 

 found that Talegallus jobiensis also occurs on the continent of New 

 Guinea, and that T. pyrrhopygius, when adult, possesses a wattle 

 on the front of the neck, and that it always has the nostrils rounded 



* " On the AlectovomorphiB," in Proc. Zool. Soc. 186S. 



