J^Tova Acta Academi(B J^aturcB Curiosorwn. 2^h 



Tribe III. Pedinornithes. 



Fam. 29. Ochteraptenodytes, [Didus, L.) 



30. Choraptenodytes, [Casuarius, Briss., Rhea, Briss.) 



31. Ammaptenodytes, {Struthio, L.) 



As we are not supplied with either the facts or the reasoning on which 

 this " Natural distribution of Birds" is founded, it would be absurd to 

 enter into a discussion of its merits. It certainly aflPords evidence of 

 some ingenuity, if only in the construction of the Greek compounds with 

 which, in common with many German systems of the present day, it 

 abounds. Indeed it might almost be said, with reference to the classifi- 

 cation before us, that in its present state, and until it shall have received 

 further elucidation, it consists of little else but these new terms, many 

 of which, to say the least, are sufficiently cramp. We have already 

 (Zool. Journ. IV. 255] had occasion to refer to the extreme to which 

 this propensity is carried on the part of our authour, and we shall find 

 it, if possible, still more strongly marked in a paper on the arrange- 

 ment of the Amphibia, also contained in the present volume. From 

 the composition of such terms, however high-sounding they may be, 

 there accrues little credit to a writer, and less advantage to science. 

 How much more usefully would the learned authour have been employed 

 in more minutely following up the observations on the distribution of the 

 different families and genera over the surface of the earth, with reference 

 chiefly to station and physical geography, which form the conclusion of 

 his paper. The subject lightly touched upon in these concluding pages 

 well deserves a profound investigation. 



An Essay, " Ueber den Fabricischen Beutel der Vogel," by Dr. A. 

 A. Berthold, is an attempt to determine the function of the organ known 

 as the Bursa Fabricii, in Birds. The authour first passes in review the 

 opinions held upon this subject by different writers : viz. by Fabricius 

 ab Aquapendente, its discoverer, who conjectures that it serves in the 

 female as a reservoir for the male semen; by Perrault, who compares t 

 to the anal sacculi and glands of certain Carnivorous Quadrupeds; by 

 Schneider, who somewhat fantastically imagines that it receives and 

 matures the eggs ; and by Blumenbach, who attributes to it no definite 

 function, but assumes that it properly belongs to the male, and is only 



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