430 Letters, Announcements, §c. 



new species are given, proposed to be called Columbina auri- 

 squamata and Conurus glaucifrons. The latter, Dr. Fmsch 

 informs us, is Conurus acuticaudatus, Vieillot. The former 

 remains yet to be recognized in Europe. 



We have likewise received copies of a reprint of Mr. Black- 

 wall's ' Researches in Zoology' (London, 1873), presented by 

 the author, and of the ' Report of the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture for the year 1871/ presented by the Department of 

 Agriculture of the U. S. A. 



Some remarkable additions have recently been made to our 

 knowledge of the extinct forms of bird-life. Not to speak of 

 the completion of Prof. A. Milne-Edwards' s ' Ornithologie 

 Fossile,' which has made us acquainted with so many new 

 genera of fossil birds, Prof. Owen has recently published 

 in the ' Transactions ' of the Zoological Society the descrip- 

 tion of an Australian Struthious form allied to Dromceus 

 (Dromornis australis*), and has communicated to the Geolo- 

 gical Society f that of a still more wonderful ornithic type pro- 

 vided with teeth {Odontopteryx tolpiacus), founded upon a 

 skull exhumed from the Sheppey clay. As a pendant to the 

 latter, Prof. Marsh has lately J described a new " subclass of 

 fossil birds" (Odontornithes), founded on two "dentiger- 

 ous " forms from the upper cretaceous shale of Kansas — Ich- 

 thyornis dispar and Apatornis celer. Lastly a new gigantic 

 fossil egg has been discovered in Southern Russia, and its un- 

 known producer called Struthiolithus chersonensis § by Dr. 

 A. Brandt. 



* Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 381. 



t See ' Nature,' July 10th (p. 215). 



X Am. Journ. of Science and Art, vol. v. 



§ Bull. Ac. Sc. St. Petersbourg, xviii. p. 159. 



