Review.



133



quite unrecognisable, while the Guillemot egg on p. 139 belongs to no

species known to oology; those of the Sparrow Hawks facing p. 336,

though reproduced in colour, are poor and indistinct. As to the

birds themselves, the Wheatear on p. 2 has only one serviceable leg,

the left-hand limb obviously suffering from an atrophied gastro-

cnemial muscle. In the plate facing p. 16 the parent Wagtails

suggest the taxidermist’s workroom rather than the streamlet; the

Blackbird on p. 162 is too corvine, and this error is repeated on

p. 180 ; the Robin on p. 170 is unrecognisable as such.


The authors contradict themselves. On p. 138 we are told,

correctly enough, that the wings of the Great Auk underwent

atrophy to the point of flightlessness. On p. 213 we read with

amazement that “ We usually speak of the Ostrich or the Great Auk

as having ‘ lost ’ the power of flight, hut it would probably he truer

to say that they failed to acquire it.” With the Ostrich at any rate

the wings are obviously vestigial, tending to disappear unwanted

owing to the well-developed legs and feet: this process can he

studied under our eyes in domestic fowls. The authors, unfor¬

tunately, seem to be totally ignorant of the difference between a

vestige and a rudiment, though the two conditions are poles apart.


Finally, on p. 92, we find the statement that the normal

temperature of “ birds” is that of high fever in man—as if all birds

were alike in this respect; besides, medical opinion may well differ

as to what may he termed “ high fever.” Let us take the House

Sparrow as a typical bird, r The researches of Gavarrett and

Rosenthal have demonstrated that the body-heat of this small fowd

is as low as 39 08° C. as against 38-01 in the normal human intestine.

The free-roaming, ocean-loving Sea Gulls may well be assumed to be

full of vitality and strength, yet even in these the recorded tempera¬

ture is only 37’8—lower than in man; and the Ostrich is content

with the same body temperature as our own. G. R.



