1919-] Recently puhl'islted Ornitholtifjical Works. 555 



numl)ei' of shorter notes of less importance, the most inter- 

 esting; being from Mrs. Hall 011 the uesting-habits of the 

 Hornhill Lophoceros birostris, the facts regarding which 

 appear to be still far from accurately known. Mrs. Hall 

 notes that after the eggs had been hatched the female bird 

 left her prison and assisted the male to feed the young birds, 

 which were again imprisoned by i)lastering up the entrance 

 to the nest. Mrs. Hall states that the female on emerging 

 from the nest-hole was by no means in bad condition and 

 bedraggled, but in beautiful plumage. The young birds 

 were fed on a varied diet of insects, possibly mice and 

 lizards, as well as various vegetable substances. The whole 

 account is most interesting. 



Journal of the Museum of Comparative Oology. 



[The Journal of the Museum of Comparative Oologj-. Vol. i. uos. 1-2. 

 Santa Barbara, Cal., U.S.A. March 1919.] 



We must very heartily congratulate our brother orni- 

 thologists of Santa Barbara, California, on their enterprise 

 in starting a ]Museum, with its attendant journal, on Oologj', 

 a science which has been grievously neglected, though col- 

 lectors of eggs are so numerous. In the foreword the 

 Editors of the Journal write: — "The Museum .... has set 

 itself the task of accumulating the phylogenetic evidence 

 offered by the eggs of the birds of the world. ^' Truly an 

 ambitious programme, but the enterprise is backed abun- 

 dantly both by brains and linancial means and surely 

 deserves success. Criticism at the present stage of the 

 scheme is hardly fair or necessary and, if the rules laid 

 down are adhered to, may never be required ; but in view of 

 what is said on page 15 as to the policy in acquiring material, 

 we might suggest that deductions may be more important 

 and more reliable if drawn from the normal rather than 

 from the abnormal. '' We are after the significant only/' 

 So the paragraph referred to runs; but it must be remem- 

 bered that a series of the normal egg may signify far more 

 than a clutch of aberrant eggs. Ill-health, over-production, 



SKll. XI. VOL. I. 2 Q 



