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POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
ZOOLOGY AND COMPARATIVE ANATOMY. 
The Zoological Position of the Dodo. — At a meeting of the Zoological 
Society on the 9th of January last, Professor Owen read a paper on the 
osteology of the Dodo, the great extinct bird of the Mauritius. Our readers 
will remember that this bird has given rise to a good deal of discussion from 
time to time as to its true affinities. When Professor Owen was Curator of 
the Royal College of Surgeons’ Museum, he classed the Dodo along with the 
Raptorial birds. This arrangement led to the production of the huge volume 
of Messrs. Strickland and Melville, in which it was very ably demonstrated 
that the bird belongs to the Columhce or pigeon group. It is highly credit- 
able therefore to Professor Owen that upon a careful examination of the 
specimens of the dodo’s bones which have lately come under his observation, 
he has consented to the view long ago expressed by Dr. Melville. The 
materials upon which Professor Owen’s paper was based consisted of about 
one hundred different bones belonging to various parts of the skeleton, 
which had been recently discovered by Mr. George Clark, of Maheberg, 
Mauritius, in an alluvial deposit in that island. After an exhaustive exami- 
nation of these remains, which embraced nearly every part of the skeleton, 
Professor Owen came to the conclusion that previous authorities had been 
correct in referring the dodo to the Columbine order, the variations pre- 
sented, though considerable, being mainly such as might be referable to the 
adaptation of the dodo to a terrestrial life, and different food and habits. 
The Functions of the Air-cells in Birds. — Dr. Drosier lately read a 
paper on this subject before the Cambridge Philosophical Society. His 
memoir included a history of the different essays which have been written 
upon these structures, but was chiefly devoted to the author’s own views, and 
to a consideration of the objections to the views generally held by anatomists 
of the present day. Dr. Drosier thinks that the air-chambers in birds are 
not employed to lessen the specific gravity of the body. The floating power 
of the air in the sacs and bones of the bird, when raised to the average 
temperature of the bird’s body, he calculated to be in a pigeon less than a 
grain ; therefore he maintained that the bird was supported in the air solely 
by the muscular effort exerted in the downward stroke of the wing. Nor 
are the air-cells designed for aerating the blood, because the vessels in them 
are very fine and sparsely scattered. He considered their true functions to be 
that, since the thoracic cells expand when the abdominal contract, and vice 
versa , during the expansion and contraction of the chest, a constant current 
of air is kept up through the lungs, and so fresh air plays constantly over 
the capillaries in the lungs, which are naked. 
The Parasite of the Bee. — M. Duchemin has presented a paper to the 
French Academy, in which he showed that he has discovered the source of 
the parasite which is so destructive to our bees. He has proved, by a course 
of careful experiments (1) that the parasite is found commonly on the 
Helianthus annuus, or sunflower, and (2) that it is from this plant that the 
bee derives the parasite. 
