Recent Literature. IOQ 



Macalister. Again it is hard to sec why ( )striches, which never flew, should 

 have hand hones so much like those of keeled birds; or to explain the 

 struthious nature of the skull and pelvis of the Crypturi, or of the sternum 

 of Notornis. But this question of relations between the carinate and 

 ratitate birds does not, of course, touch the descent of birds from the 

 Dinosaurs provided we allow flying birds to be derived from the struthious 

 ones. 



Arguing from the fact that no contour feathers are present save on the 

 tibia Professor Vogt thinks that the body was naked. In this case an 

 Archceopteryx must have been a strange sight when flying, its reptilian 

 head stretched out to balance the long tail with its row of rectrices on 

 each side. From what Professor Vogt has discovered by a cursory exam- 

 ination there can be no doubt that much of great interest will be learned 

 when this fossil is properly worked out from the matrix. — J. A. Jeffries. 



Nehrlixg's Ornithological Observations in Texas.* — These 

 observations consist of a running commentary on the more common birds 

 met with by Dr. Nehrling in March. April, and May. 1879, i n Lee and 

 Fayette Counties, Texas. It is apparently the first of a series of papers 

 on the birds of Texas, consisting of interesting field-notes on birds 

 observed in various parts of the State by this well-known German ornith- 

 ologist, with, incidentally, notes on the mammals, the plants, and the 

 general character of the country. 



It may he here added that Dr. Nehrling has also in the journal already 

 cited (Jahrgang V. No. 12, Dec. 1SS0. pp. 214-223) published a detailed 

 account of the Bluebird (Der Blauvogel oder Iliittensanger, Sialia Wilsonii, 

 Swains.) with a colored plate of a family group of old and young. — J. A. A. 



Shufeldt's Osteological Memoirs. — With notably few excep- 

 tions the anatomy of birds has received little attention at the hands 

 of American ornithologists. Aside from Dr. (Jones's elaborate me- 

 moir on the osteology and mvologv of Colymbus torguatits, the same 

 author's briefer accounts of the osteology of the Sfhenicidce and La- 

 ridiP, and Morse's admirable researches on the carpus and tarsus, the 

 anatomy of birds has been but lightly touched by American writers. It, 

 therefore, gives us pleasure to note the energy with which Dr. Shufeldt 

 has entered upon this new field, the two memoirs here noticed being, we 

 have reason to hope, but the forerunners of others, some of which we are 

 advised are well advanced in preparation. The readers of the Bulletin 

 have already been apprised of Dr. Shufeldt's work upon the osteology of 

 the Burrowing Owl.f through the publication of the plates which 



* Ornithologische Beobachtungen aus Texas. I: Von H. Nehrling. Monatsschrift des 

 Ueutschen Vereins zum Schutze der Vogelwelt, V Jahrgang, No. 7, Juli 1880, pp. 122-139. 



t Osteology of Speotyto Cunicularia var. Hypogaea. By R. W. Shufeldt, [First 

 Lieutenant and] Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army. Bull U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv_ 

 Territories, Vol. VI, No. 1, Feb. 11, 1881, pp. 87-117, pll. i-iii. 



