NATURE 



49 



THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1898. 



THE ANATOMY OF BIRDS. 

 The S/nuturc and Classification of Birds. By F. E. 



BecUlard. Pp- xx + 548, illustrated. (London : Long- 

 mans, Green, and Co., 189S.) 



READERS of the Zoological Socieffs Proceedings 

 may not improbably have been struck by the 

 comparatively small number of papers communicated 

 to the last few issues by the prosector. The present 

 handsomely got-up volume shows, however, that Mr. 

 Beddard has been fully occupied in anatomical invest- 

 igations, and he is to be congratulated in presenting the 

 results of his labours in such an attractive and well 

 arranged form. 



As stated in the preface, the work is not solely based 

 on his own researches, since his two immediate pre- 

 decessors in office devoted a large amount of time 

 and labour to the study of the anatomy and affinities 

 of birds. Portions of such work have been from time to 

 time published in separate papers ; but a large amount 

 of MS. was left by Prof. Garrod, of which Mr. Beddard 

 has availed himself. It is thus highly satisfactory to 

 have in a combined and handy form the leading results 

 of the united work of three such distinguished bird 

 anatomists as the author and his two predecessors. 



Although works on the external characters and classi- 

 fication of birds abound, treatises in English on avian 

 anatomy and morphology are rare ; and the present 

 work therefore fills a distinct gap — and fills it well. 

 Commencing with a purposely brief sketch of the general 

 principles of bird structure, Mr. Beddard devotes the 

 greater part of his volume to the characteristic struc- 

 tural characters of the different groups of birds. To a 

 considerable extent this ground has indeed been covered 

 by Dr. Gadow, but the author has treated the subject in 

 greater detail, and has recorded a number of new facts, 

 many of which are highly important. 



The general anatomy of the class is treated in a manner 

 which, while ministering to the wants of the advanced 

 student, can scarcely fail to interest those lovers of birds 

 who desire to know something more than the mere 

 arrangement and colours of the feathers. And especial 

 attention may be directed to the section devoted to the 

 gradually increasing complexity of the folds of the intes- 

 tine as we pass to the more specialised forms. Here, as 

 elsewhere, an admirable series of illustrations display in 

 the clearest form the various types of structure dis- 

 cussed. 



In the osteological section of general anatomy the 

 paragraph devoted to the hyoid (p. 136), if not absolutely 

 incorrect, is certainly very far from clear, and, moreover, 

 does not agree with the explanatory figure on the opposite 

 page. .Again, on p. 140 we meet, in a quotation from 

 Dr. Coues, with the word " fadge," which, if correctly 

 printed, certainly stands in need of explanation to 

 ordinary readers. And, although there is no difficulty 

 about their meaning, we must venture to protest against 

 the use of such terms as " schizorhiny " and "holor- 

 hiny," in place of schizorhinism and holorhinism. 



Turning to the classificatory portion of the subject, the 

 NO. 1516, VOL. 59] 



table of contents looks as though the author was starting 

 a missing word competition — without offering a prize to 

 the solver 1 At the commencement of the table ip. x.) 

 we find the term Ornithurae printed in the same vertical 

 line as a series of other names apparently intended to 

 indicate groups of inferior rank ; and at the end, also in 

 the same line, the term Saururac, evidently the equivalent 

 in rank to the first. Such a small error in alignment 

 might well be passed over without notice. But imme- 

 diately below Ornithurae occurs the term Aiwniologonatae, 

 followed in the same vertical line by Passeres and Pici. 

 And on looking down the table we fail to find any group 

 corresponding in rank to this Anoii!oloi;nnatae, so that 

 there is not the faintest clue to the number of orders it is 

 intended to embrace. On turning to the page (167) 

 where the Atioinologonalac are described we likewise fail 

 to discover its antithesis. Neither does the index help 

 us, since terms of higher rank than genera are excluded 

 therefrom ; this being, in our opinion, a decidedly ob- 

 jectionable plan. Almost by chance, we at length suc- 

 ceeded in stumbling on the missing word — to wit, 

 Hoinalogonatae — on p. 165 ; but even when thus found, 

 the reader is apparently left totally in the dark as to the 

 number of ordinal groups thus brigaded together. 

 .Another glaring error in the " Contents " cannot be over- 

 looked. By the position and large type in which the 

 item " Reproduction [tive] and Renal Organs " is printed, 

 it is made to include such subjects as myology, 

 osteology, &c. ! 



In printing the names of ordinal and higher groups in 

 block type, the author is perhaps well advised. But 

 personally we decidedly object to the names of writers 

 being similarly distinguished ; the important point to 

 which attention should be directed being the fact re- 

 corded, and not the more or less distinguished individual 

 by whom it was discovered. And here it may be men- 

 tioned that authors' names are not always correctly spelt, 

 a superfluous e being generally, although not always, in- 

 tercalated in that of one well-known avian osteologist. 

 Moreover, if we mistake not, full justice has not been 

 done to the labours of the satne writer, who contributed 

 the last paper bearing on one of the subjects on which 

 the late Mr. VVray is alone quoted as the latest 

 authority. 



Neither is the work quite free from errors of expression. 

 For example, in treating -of the Limicolae (pp. 326 and 

 327), we meet with the following passage : — " The type 

 family is that of the Charadriidae, which contains the 

 largest number of genera ; the remaining families are 

 not separated from it by very numerous points of dif- 

 ference, and the group as a whole is very near to the 

 gulls, which I only divide as a family." That is to say, 

 a group is allied to a portion of itself I 



As regards the serial arrangement of the various orders 

 (of which a large number are adopted), comparatively 

 few remarks will suffice. Some surprise will be ex- 

 perienced in finding the Accipilres placed near the end 

 of the series between the extinct Ichthyornitlus and the 

 modern tinamous, to neither of which they have any 

 affinity. And when we find it stated (p. 469) that the 

 hhthyornithes themselves are probably allied to the 

 stork and plover tribe, it seems strange to find them 

 located between the Aiiseres and the Accipitres. -Again, 



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