No. 489] 



NOTES AND LITERATURE 



597 



occupies more lines than the account of the bird, as with the savanna 

 sparrow and purple martin. An amusing feature of the extensive 

 bibHography is the transhition of the titles of newspaper articles into 

 intelligible form, for example, - Li»qn- in Winffrs- Lap. (An acc.niit 

 of birds which delayr.i tlirir niiirralio.i.) - Uird.s a/ M i,.frr>i nt l.a/.r 



or bird haunts include a photograph of a colony of great blue herons, 



^ F. T. L. 



The Excess of Male Births. - In the Mav Natiori//\-f (vol. -11, p. 

 303) A. H. Pike discu.vsed the .ignifi( ..ncc <>t th.- cv cf male births 



born for every 100 females. In the -lune issue ot the I'ror. of the 

 Cambridge Phil Soc. (vol. 14, p. 122) ^Valter Ileape presents the 

 best available statistics for dogs. Among 3(),Sr)7 pups of regi.stered 

 stock there arc 117 males for every 100 females. Of some twenty 

 breeds considered, all showed an excess of males except two, the 

 figures for which were based on limited returns. The excess of males 

 is apparently greater in large breeds of dogs than in small ones. Mr. 

 Heape believes that the latest moment at which sex of oH'sjirinu- can 

 be determined is the time of fertilization. However, .inc.- nnfritiun 

 of the i)arents .nay aher the sex-.let(M-minino- tael..r> in tlieir -penna- 



trolled, at le:ist to some exlenl . 



V. 'V. L. 



Recent Publications Concerning the Structure of Insects. - Tlir 



