1893.] Zoology. 283 
“ We saw, at the last meeting of the Zoological Society, a specimen 
of the egg of an extinct bird of Madagascar, which is fifteen times the 
bulk of an ostrich egg, and yet the bird itself does not appear to have 
been larger than—as far as we can judge from remains—the New Zea- 
land moa, an extinct bird, to which it had an affinity. This same 
peculiarity runs through all the birds of Madagascar. Of course, the 
water-birds and sea-fowl are the same as those of Africa, but there are 
one or two extraordinary exceptions. There is the snake-bird, a long- 
necked bird of very great beauty and grace, allied to the cormorant, 
which it resembles in its habits, and of which there are four species in 
the world—the Madagascar one is certainly Indian. Then, again, 
another puzzling bird to naturalists is the Mesites, a water-hen peculiar 
to Madagascar. These birds are usually distinguished by a small tail 
and a short tarsus, whereas, the Madagascar, which is related to 
the others, has a long tail and tarsus, and no one, until M. Audebert, 
thought the bird was allied to the rails. There is a group of cuckoos 
entirely peculiar to Madagascar—the coua—of which there are nine or 
ten species, which have no relations at all in Africa or India. Then, 
in another group, we have a bird allied to the thrushes, but not Afri- 
can, although allied to a species in the Mauritius and al] the Mascarene 
Islands—the Hypsipetes. Altogether, we cannot explain the Madagas- 
car Fauna, but it shows that Madagascar must have been separated 
from Africa for an infinity of ages; and its natural history affinities 
are certainly rather with India than Africa, and yet they are entirely 
distinct and peculiar. No doubt there is a great deal more to be found 
out than we have yet obtained. The most peculiar specimens seem to 
come from the northwest part, which, I believe, has been but slightly 
explored. We know less of it than of any other part, and that leads 
one to hope that we may still have further specimens, and that we may 
get something which will throw light generally on the Mad 
fauna, which is represented also in the Seychelles Islands, in the Rod- 
rigues, and in Réunion, also in the Mauritius.” (Proceeds. Roy. Geog. 
Soc., Nov., 1892.) 
The Nephridia of Amphioxus.—Boveri, in an article’ which 
deserves more space than we can give it, describes the nephridia of 
Amphioxus, and, in conclusion, summarises his results in the follow- 
ing words: There are present in Amphioxus all the elements of the 
nephridial system of the Craniata, part with the same function (pro- 
ME 
É gi oe 
Zool. Jahrbücher. Abth. f. Anat. u. Ontog. V., 1892. 
