Recent Literature . 
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Macalister. Again it is hard to see why Ostriches, which never flew, should 
have hand bones so much like those of keeled birds ; or to explain the 
struthious nature of the skull and pelvis of the Crypturi, or of the sternum 
of Notorvis. But this question of relations between the carinate and 
ratitate birds does not, of course, touch the descent of birds from ' the 
Dinosaurs provided we allow flying birds to be derived from the struthious 
ones. 
Arguing from the fact that no contour feathers are present save on the 
tibia Professor Vogt thinks that the body was naked. In this case an 
Archceopteryx must have been a strange sight when flying, its reptilian 
head stretched out to balance the long tail with its row of rectrices on 
each side. From what Professor Vogt has discovered by a cursory exam- 
ination there can be no doubt that much of great interest will be learned 
when this fossil is properly worked out from the matrix. — J. A. Jeffries. 
Nehrling’s Ornithological Observations in Texas.* — These 
observations consist of a running commentary on the more common birds 
met with by Dr. Nehrling in March. April, and May, 1879, Lee and 
Fayette Counties, Texas. It is apparently the first of a series of papers 
on the birds of Texas, consisting of interesting field-notes on birds 
observed in various parts of the State by this well-known German ornith- 
ologist, with, incidentally, notes on the mammals, the plants, and the 
general character of the country. 
It may he here added that Dr. Nehrling has also in the journal already 
cited (Jahrgang V, No. 12, Dec. 1880, pp. 214-223) published a detailed 
account of the Bluebird (Der Blauvogel oder Hiittensanger, Sialia Wilsonii, 
Swains.) with a colored plate of a family group of old and young. — J. A. A. 
Shufeldt’s Osteological Memoirs. — With notably few excep- 
tions * the anatomy of birds has received little attention at the hands 
of American ornithologists. Aside from Dr. Coues’s elaborate me- 
moir on the osteology and myology of Colymbus torquatus , the same 
author’s briefer accounts of the osteology of the Spkenicidce and La- 
ridce , and Morse’s admirable researches on the carpus and tarsus, the 
anatomy of birds has been but lightly touched by American writers. It, 
therefore, gives us pleasure to note the energy with which Dr. Shufeldt 
has entered upon this new field, the two memoirs here noticed being, we 
have reason to hope, but the forerunners of others, some of which we are 
advised are well advanced in preparation. The readers of the Bulletin 
have already been apprised of Dr. Shufeldt’s work upon the osteology of 
the Burrowing Owl,f through the publication of the plates which 
* Ornithologische Beobachtungen aus Texas. I. Von H. Nehrling. Monatsschrift des 
Deutschen Vereins zum Schutze der Vogelwelt, V Jahrgang; No. 7, Juli 1880, pp. 122-139. 
t Osteology of Speotyto Cunicularia var. Hypogaea. By R. W. Shufeldt, [Firs t 
Lieutenant and] Assistant Surgeon, U. S. Army. Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geogr. Surv. 
Territories, Vol. VI, No. 1, Feb. 11, 1881, pp. 87-117, pll. i-iii v 
