The Morphology of Birds 1

Abstract

I. THIS magnificent work, consisting of two folio volumes, with more than 1700 pages of closely printed text, and illustrated by more than thirty artistically executed plates, is the latest of the “Bijdragen tot de Dierkunde” (“Contributions to the Knowledge of Animals“), published by the Royal Zoological Society, Natura Artis Magistra of Amsterdam, on its fiftieth anniversary. It is the parting gift to that Society of its grateful author, who, one of Prof. Gegenbaur's ablest pupils, now fills the Chair of Anatomy in the University of Jena; and it is needless to say that the publication of so monumental a work reflects the highest credit upon the Society of Amsterdam. It is monumental not merely from its bulk, but chiefly from the enormous amount of information it contains, much of it bearing upon some of the most deeply-rooted questions of importance to the general morphologist, and above air on the natural affinities—that is to say, the phylogeny—of birds both living and extinct.