Bibliographical Notices. 481 
tion of the Quinary System—the Swedenborgianism of ornithology 
—adopted in the days of Vigors, Swainson, W.S. Macleay, and 
Oken; while an attempt is made to claim tardy justice for the 
honest work of L’Herminier, neglected by his contemporaries, who 
were busied with futile systems. Matter worthy of serious con- 
sideration, however, begins with the enunciation by Huxley of the 
theory now generally accepted, namely that Birds are descended 
- from Reptilian forms; and the treatise of that distinguished natu- 
ralist, as well as the schemes of classification proposed by his 
successors, are here analysed with remarkable lucidity. An 
important feature consists in the prominence given to Prof. Fir- 
bringer’s contribution to Systematic Ornithology, published in 1888 : 
a work which does not seem to have obtained from British natu- 
ralists the attention it deserves. His researches (to quote Prof. 
Newton) “ put the Reptilian pedigree of Birds and the position of 
the Ratits in a wholly new light, incidentally proving the latter to 
be derived from ancestors fully endowed with wings.” It should 
be mentioned that Prof. Marsh’s Odontornithes had already been 
discussed, and that Prof. Furbringer’s position does not upset 
Prof. Marsh’s contention that the first Birds had not the faculty of 
flight. ‘‘ It only makes evident that between the volant forefathers 
of the modern Ratite and the very first Birds there intervened an 
indefinite but great number of forms, of which few, if any, traces 
are known to us, and that the origin of Birds is far more remote 
than we had been inclined to suppose. Birds, considers Prof. Fiir- 
bringer, since they spring from Reptiles, must have begun with 
toothed forms of small or moderate size, with long tails and four 
Lizard-like feet, having distinct metacarpals and metatarsals, besides 
well-formed claws, while their bodies were clothed with a very 
primitive kind of down.’ He traces the development of these 
forms to their gradual attainment of the faculty of flight, and their 
improvement in that direction, until we find the type of the higher 
or better Birds of Flight established in the Cretaceous Jchthyornis 
and including the vast majority of existing Birds commonly grouped 
as Carinate. But during the period that the higher and lower 
types were being differentiated came a retrograde movement and a 
dwindling of the volant power—the drift of the evidence being that 
the Ratitee are not entitled to be considered a distinct subclass, 
but that they diverged from their flying ancestors at different epochs. 
Such seem to be some of the principal points in Prof. Newton’s 
excellent epitome ; and if in the space at our disposal we have done 
him an injustice, the reader must apply the antidote by reference to 
the original (pp. 100-105). For the Author’s able review of the 
present position of the taxonomy of Birds, pp. 108-120 must be 
carefully studied. 
To the present work Dr. Hans Gadow has contributed many 
valuable articles on Anatomy: such as Colour, Embryology, Feathers, 
Digestive, Muscular, and Vascular Systems, Pterylosis, Skeleton, &c., 
these being distinguished by Italic type. Mr. R. Lydekker has ably 
undertaken the Fossil Birds; an article on Flight by the late 
