NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.
There is an ornithology of the field—certainly the earliest form of the study, as proved by the traditions and languages of primitive races; a museum ornithology, which is the parent of most of our avian literature; and an anatomical ornithology, of which many of us have heard too little and studied less. This volume comes in the fulness of time; it supplies a real want to the general zoologist, as well as to the special ornithologist, and is a creation of the Prosector's department attached to the Gardens of our Zoological Society. To the late Prof. Garrod the inception of the work appears to be due—his successor, the late Mr. W.A. Forbes, did not live to carry it out as he intended; the third Prosector, Mr. Beddard, has now completed the task.
In discussing the affinities of birds, and the general belief as to their origin from some reptile stem, Mr. Beddard reviews the evidence which has led some of our highest authorities to detect a nearer kinship with the Dinosaurs than with any other group of reptiles.[1] As is now fairly well known, the celebrated tridactyle footprints in the sandstone of the Triassic period which were ascribed to birds are now considered as certainly footprints of Dinosaurs; but Mr. Beddard is cautious in adopting a purely derivative hypothesis. As he writes:—"Still, with so specialized a form as Archæopteryx certainly was, and as Laopteryx probably was in the Jura, it would not be surprising to meet with genuine avian remains in the Trias. But even then there are undoubtedly Dinosaurs belonging to that period, so that the question of relationship would resolve itself into a common origin, not a derivation of birds from Dinosaurs." Of the relation between
- ↑ Prof. Marsh's Memoir on the "Dinosaurs of North America" was noticed in our last volume (1897, p. 92).
