Recent Ornithological Publications. 475 



arc articulated to the occiput, had but very shghtly studied the 

 osteology of birds. Not much more can be said, even of the 

 greatest of his disciples. But an error once made and publicly 

 proclaimed by a great man, is hard to correct ; and though, to 

 our mind, Mr. Parker has completely disposed of this fallacy, we 

 expect it will be long aud often repeated. It is one into which 

 no unbiassed ornithotomist would ever have fallen. If we have 

 a fault to find with this book, it is due to the extraordinary 

 caution with which its author has expressed hiuiself on matters 

 relating to classitication. It is clear that he is not satisfied with 

 any system of arrangement as yet proposed ; for which, indeed, 

 we are far from blaming him. But we think he might, out of 

 the abundance of his knowledge, have given us something more 

 definite than what we meet with. Quaint and forcible though 

 his language often is, he aflfords us but little direct aid. "As 

 for Birds in general," he declares, " it is hard to say which is 

 the most Reptilian group ; for I have found the most unmis- 

 takable Lacertiau characters in the noblest aerial types, whilst 

 the Struthionidre, which undergo the least metamorphosis, come 

 as near to the Mammalia as they do to the Reptilia. In studjdng 

 the lower half of the thorax and the Shoulder-girdle of the Bird, 

 I shall * fetch a compass ' round the entire class, beginning with 

 the Penguin, and ending with the Ostrich. I do not, however, 

 intend to make merely a ' coast-survey,^ but to travel inland also 

 at various points, so as to learn something of the central tribes. 

 In so doing, I must refer the reader from time to time to the 

 territories we have left behind, and occasionally to that towards 

 which we are led through the various highways and byways of 

 the Bird-class. We might, indeed, gain the Mammalian Class 

 by a very short route ; for we have but to step from the Crocodile 

 to the Ostrich, and from the Ostrich to the Monotreme, and we 

 are lauded amongst the creatures that ' make their teats naked, 

 and give suck to their whelps ' ; but this is not the right way, 

 for every finished and noble Bird-type would be left on the right 

 hand and on the left" (p. 142). 



Thus everything around us is in a thick fog. Mr. Parker 

 keeps ringing the bell to bid us go at half-speed. Will he not 

 come on board and tell us how to steer our course rightly ? 



N. S. — VOL. TV. 2 K 



