Vol. xxxvi.] 20 



scientific ornithology consists solely of the structure and 

 classification of birds and their synonymy, and that it is 

 apart from the study of the life-history of the bird, and 

 that this can be ignored in scientific study and should be 

 relegated to "popular" ornithology. And among egg- 

 collectors we want to do away with tbe idea that the 

 collection exists solely for the pleasure of the owner : that 

 the justification of its existence lies in the use made of it 

 and of — what is equally valuable — the knowledge gained in 

 acquiring it by one's own exertions. 



The Chair.man : I think we are all very much interested 

 in Mr. Jourdain's paper, but before I call upon Dr. Hartert 

 to answer it, as I do not intend to take any large part in the 

 discussion, T must make three points which struck me 

 during Mr. Jourdain's lecture. He laid some stress upon 

 the fact that the size of the egg depended, in his opinion, 

 considerably on the state of development of the young bird 

 at the hatching period and also on the time of incubation. 

 "Well, I should like to draw the attention of the Club to 

 this fact, that two most extraordinary examples of very 

 large eggs are the Guillemots and Apteryx, eggs which were 

 both cited by Mr. Jourdain. The Apteryx is hatched in 

 such an advanced state of development that it can gain its 

 own livelihood when it is hatched, while the Guillemot is in 

 a very low state of development. On the other hand, 

 quoting from one author, he remarked that with regard to 

 the large pyriform eggs of the Limicoline and allied birds, 

 the birds were so highly developed that they required a large 

 egg to develop in before hatching. Well, the most advanced 

 birds of the whole ornithological world are the Megapodes, 

 which are hatched by the heat of decaying vegetable matter, 

 and when they are hatched are able to fly, and they have not 

 pyriform but semicylindrical eggs, somewhat similar to those 

 of the Goat-suckers, although I quite admit that they are 

 large for the size of the bird. 



Dr. E. Hartert : History repeats itself, but with changes. 

 Twenty-five years ago I was asked to give a lecture 

 about Oology before the Senckenbergische Gesellschaft in 

 Frankfurt, and I called it " On Oology and its Importance 

 for Science." To-day I am asked to " oppose" a lecture on 



