Scientific Serials

Abstract

Der Zoologische Garten.—In the December number the first article is one on monstrosities in wild birds, by Herr Pfarrer Jäckel, who describes several instances of additional and deficient limbs, and figures the leg of a Golden Eagle with two well-developed extra toes attached to the back of the tarsus.—The editor, Dr. Noll, treats of the salmon-fishery on the Rhine at St. Goar. In 1873 the number of fish captured was 1,162, weighing in all 16,612 lbs. —An account by Dr. Taiber of the chase of the South American Ostrich (Rea americand) with the bolas is reproduced from the “La Plata Monatsschrift”—Dr. R. Meyer describes two breeding nests of the squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris), in which the entrance was covered by a lid or flap, formed of fine grass; he confirms ihe statement that these animals have other nests to which they remove their young in case of danger. —Dr. A. Praetorius writes on the domestic animals of the ancient Greeks.—Victor Ritter von Tschusi-Schmidhofen states, on the authority of L. v. Hueber, that the Lesser Kestrel (Tin-nunculus cenchris) is spreading northward in Carinthia, and replacing the common species (T. alandarius), and also gives an instance of the breeding of the Waxwing (Bombicylla garrula) in Austria, a nest having been found in May 1872, in the Castle park at Kremsier by Pfarrer Kaspar. Unfortunately, it was destroyed, and the birds disappeared.