664 Recent Literature. [ September, 
checking too free interpretation of purely embryological pro- 
cesses, are not discussed. In the introduction the credit of the 
correlation of the development of the individual and the class to 
which it Lelongs, should have been given to Agassiz and to Milne- 
Edwards, however much it has been extended and modified by 
later evolutionists. We find little to criticise in the author's 
general views. The illustrations, where originally prepared for 
the work, are nearly faultless, with two or three exceptions. 
THE ODONTORNITHES, OR Birps witH TEETH.'—The present 
memoir presents the results obtained by Prof. Marsh from the 
study of the remains of this interesting group, procured by him 
during the last ten years. It is generally known that the speci- 
mens which represent the Odontornithes have only been found in 
America in the Niobrara Cretaceous, or No. 3 of Meek and Hay- 
den, and within the geographical limits of the State of Kansas. 
Prof. Marsh’s book sets forth principally the osteology of four 
species of the group, viz: Hesperorni. f 
Ichthyornis dispar and Ichthyornis victor, all discovered and name 
all) of the remainder of the class Aves, and the two great divi- 
sions thus formed embrace corresponding or “ heterologous ” sub- 
. Inhis discussions the author adopts the theory of the 
production of modification of structure by use, a doctrine first 
‘fully formulated in an essay in this journal? 
_ A supplement to the chapters above mentioned includes a synop- 
sis of all the species of birds hitherto found in the Cretaceous forma- 
tions of North America, twenty in number, all named by the 
author. We should like to have seen introduced here some clear 
descriptions of several of the genera named by Prof. Marsh, but 
whose characters we are yet unacquainted with. Some reference 
to the first discovery of birds with biconcave vertebra in Eng- — r 
land by Seeley, in 18703 would also have been in place. Men- 
tion of the extent and character of the services for which Mre 
Oscar Harger is thanked in the introduction, would also have been 
proper. | a 
1 The Otontornithes, or Birds with Teeth. By O. C. MARSH. Memoirs of he 
y 
Peabody Museum of Yale College, Vol. 1, 1880. ‘gto, pp- 200. 
? 1871, p. 603. Proceed. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1871, 253+ 
3 Annals Magaz. Nat, Hist., p. 129. 
