74 ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
Schmidt, Max. Das Skelet der Hausvdgel in geometrischen 
Zeichnungen auf 15 lithographirten Tafeln dargestellt und 
mit errauterndem Texte verselien. Frankfurt : 1867. Large 
fol. 
This work we have not seen. It is highly spoken of by Prof. 
Pagenstecher (Zoolog. Garten, 1867, pp. 358, 359). 
Turner, W. Eemarks on the assumption of Male Plumage by 
the Hen of the Domestic Fowl. Proc. Eoy. Physical Soc. 
Edinburgh, iii. pp. 297-399. 
A confirmation of much that has been previously advanced on 
the subject. 
PTEEYLOLOGY. 
Nitzsch [C. L.] Pterylography, translated [by W. S. Dallas] 
from the German. London : 1867. Edited by P. L. 
ScLATER. Fol. pp. 181, pis. X. (Eay Society.) 
The Eay Society could not have done better than select 
as their first ornithological publication the work of Nitzsch, 
which, though the foundation of all subsequent investigations 
on the subject, has hitherto met with undeserved neglect. The 
Society also has been most fortunate in finding an editor and 
translator fully equal to their respective tasks, as well as obtain- 
ing the original excellent copper-plates by which the book is 
illustrated. 
The original work was edited by Prof. Burmeister after the 
author^s death, and appeared in 1810 (Halle, 4to), the prefatory 
portion only having been published during his lifetime in 1833. 
To most ornithologists its contents, nay even the subject of which 
it treats is comparatively unknown. We may therefore be ex- 
cused for saying more of it here than we generally do of transla- 
tions or reprints. 
The first part is devoted to General Pterylography,^^ and, 
after a few preliminary remarks, treats of the structure of fea- 
thers and their principal difierences. A perfect feather consists 
of six parts — (1) stem, (2) aftershaft, (3) barbs, (4) barbules, (5) 
barbicels, and (6) booklets, the development of which is fully ex- 
plained. There are three principal forms of feathers — (1) penna- 
ceous, (2) downy, and (3) filoplumaceous. Again, feathers are of 
four different kinds — (1) contour- or surface-feathers, (2) down- 
feathers, (3) semiplumes, and (4) filoplumes. Next the distri- 
bution of the plumage of birds in definite tracts is considered. 
Nine such tracts {pterylai) clothed with contour-feathers (some of 
which are in pairs) may be distinguished ; in particular (1) the 
dorsal, (2) humeral, (3) femoral or lumbar, and (4) inferior ; but 
in a few birds there are besides (5) lateral neck- tracts ; and the 
other parts similarly covered furnish (6) the head, (7) alar, (8) 
crural, and (9) caudal tracts. Between these occur featherless 
