AVES. 
. 57 
rtiocle of breeding. According to the colour of the eggs the birds 
may be arranged in four groups — those laying (1) glossy eggs 
Avith a white ground, blotched with brownish- or bluish-grey, 
(2) very glossy eggs with a greenish-white ground, spotted and 
streaked with greenish-brown and grey, (3) dull and delicate 
eggs with a pale reddish cream-coloured or lively flesh-coloured 
ground marked with yellowish-red and violet-grey, and (4) un- 
spotted eggs more or less white. The first of these is the pre- 
vailing type, especially in the northern hemis])herc and the tem- 
perate districts of the Old World; the second is the northern 
type of the New World ; the third the southern type, especially 
in the New World; and the fourth the Polynesian type, which 
is special for the Fodarginae. and SteatornithirKB. The accounts 
of the different species are given in much detail and with great 
apparent accuracy. 
Kcenig-Warthausen, Baron Biciiard. Revue der Sterna-Eier, 
Bcricht XVII. Versamml. Deutschl. Ornithol. Gesellsch. 
pp. 36-39. 
The oological characters, so far as known to the author, of all 
the species of Sierninai, are briefly given. 
Layard, E. L. Further Notes on South-African Ornithology. 
[See Ethiopian Region.^^] 
Natiiusius, W. Von. Ueber die Iliillen, welchedeu Dottcr des 
Vogeleies urngeben. Zeitschr. fur wisscnseli. Zoologie, 
xviii. pp. 225-270, pis. xiii.-xvii. Nachtriige. Op. cit. xix. 
j)p. 322-348, pis. xxvi.-xxviii. 
• . Ueber die Structurder Moa-Eischalen aus Neu-Seeland 
und die Bcdeiitung der Eisehalenstructur liir die Syste- 
matik. Op. cit. xx. pp. 106-130, pi. xii. 
Of this elaborate and praiseworthy series of papers, of which 
we feel our inability to offer an abstract within any reasonable 
limits, the last has probably the most zoological interest. The 
author finds that the egg-shell of Dinornis has the same habitus 
as that of other Struthiones, among which it stands nearest to 
Rhea, though the resemblance was not so great in the thicker of 
the two fragments of the former examined by him as in the thin- 
ner. Apteryx, on the other hand, in this respect does not agree so 
much with the Struthioues ', but the fact that the specimen of its 
egg examined was laid by a captive, renders, perhaps, deduc- 
tions from it less satisfactory. The illustrations give many figures 
of highly-magnified portions of the egg-shell in several birds. 
Ramsay, E. V. Some further Remarks on the Cuckoos found 
in the Neighbourhood of Sydney, and their Foster-parents. 
Froc. Zool. Soc. 1869, pp. 359, 360, pi. xxvil. 
A sequel to the paper l3efore noticed (Zool. Rec. ii. p. 90), 
wherein Lamjnococcyx plagosus and L. hasalis were not distin- 
1869. [voL. VI.] r 
