ten coverts. The same number is found in the young, though the first covert is very small. Anisodactylæ. I have not been able to examine any young of this group, which it is especially desirable to do, since in the Kingfishers the adult has ten primaries, ten coverts, and a "little feather," which may be another primary. This at least is the case in Ceryle alcyon and in species of Dacelo. Pici. In Picoides arcticus the young gives the following formula: Pr., 10, pr. c., 9, 3rd row, 6. In the nestlings of this species and of Colaptes auratus, the only young Woodpeckers I have seen, the last three or four primaries are very small and seem not to become fully grown till after the moult. This may be an adaptation to the home of the young bird, since it enables the wing to fold up close with less pressure on the growing feathers than would be the case if they were all fully developed. Accipitres. Among the Hawks, I have examined the young of Buteo pennsylvanicus and found, to my surprise, eleven primaries, ten coverts, and a terminal claw. That it was a true claw there can be no doubt, its resemblance to the undoubted claw of the I finger or thumb being complete. The presence of the claw is here of interest, as it points to the existence of a third phalanx, a thing not accredited to the Hawks and not ossified in my skeleton of the Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter fuscus). I limit my remarks to this specimen, since, judging from the almost universal absence of the ungual phalanx of the thumb, no reliance can be placed on museum specimens. In adult Buteones there is a small feather in the proper position for the first primary, but structurally it is only a contour feather. This may be developed from the first primary papilla or the papilla may abort; it is difficult to say which. Of the remaining groups of birds my observations have been even more sparse than in the foregoing. For convenience I will next consider the Ducks, taking a domestic Duck in illustration. In this case, as is true of all the lower birds, down tufts are developed from the papillæ of the primaries, thus making a strong contrast to the young birds previously described, where the papillæ assume the structure of pin-feathers before they burst. So instead of simply counting the papillæ we must separate out the little tufts and count their number. If this is done in the case of a young Duck eleven primary tufts and ten smaller covert า tufts can be seen. But this is not all; at the extreme tip of the Of Sea-fowl I have been able, through the kindness of Mr. J. A. Allen, to examine the young of a Gull, an Auk and a Petrel. In the first case I found eleven primaries and ten coverts; in the second, the same numbers and a terminal claw; in the third case, only ten primaries and ten coverts. Mr. Allen also gave me for examination two young of the South African Ostrich. Here the primaries and secondaries run in a straight line from the elbow to the tip of the II finger and have no connection with the little III finger. Hence it is difficult to say how many spring from the hand and how many from the arm, certainly seventeen and perhaps eighteen, there being about thirty-two in all. Whether we call these primaries depends on our ideas of phylogenetic relations of the Struthiones. If these are degredational forms from flying birds then we must call them the representatives of primaries; if, on the other hand, the Ostriches never flew they ought, I suppose, to be considered as simple contour feathers. If we summarize the above facts we find that the number of primaries of which signs can be found varies from ten to eleven in Carinate birds, while many more exist in the Ratitate birds, while the functional primaries vary from nine to eleven in number. In regard to the primary coverts, there are for the most part one less than the number of primaries, varying from nine to ten in number. All the above conditions can be classed in four groups, the first group containing the nine primaried birds, all of which belong to the Oscines. In this group the first primary and the first covert are rudimentary. The second group, containing all birds with ten developed primaries and nine coverts, includes the rest of the Oscines, and Pici, and I presume most of the other Passerine groups. The third group, all those with ten primaries and ten coverts, includes the Cypseli, Trochili, Ardeidæ, Turbinares, and probably others, the young of which I have not been able to examine. The last group, containing those birds with eleven primaries, includes the Alcedinidæ, Falconida, Plotida, Ciconiida, Phonicopterida, Anatidæ, Charadriidæ, Scolopacida, Parida, Colymbidæ, Aicidæ, and probably most of the other lower birds. Thus we see that the number of primaries does not hold constant for the larger groups of birds, but that the higher birds of the various groups show a tendency towards a reduction in the number of primaries. So the reduced number of primaries and coverts would seem to point to high development, but not to be of use in dividing the major groups. The rule according to which the primaries and coverts abort is interesting and of importance, since it makes it possible to decide whether a "little feather" be a primary or a covert. The law is simply that the most distal one aborts first, hence a covert before its primary. Hence when one "little feather" is found we can tell if it be a covert, as in the Tyrannidæ, or a primary, as in the Kingfishers, by seeing what the next developed feather is,—in the first case a primary, in the last a covert. When there are two little feathers one is a primary and the other a covert, the covert being uppermost. The definiteness in the wing formula of birds closely related is very great, the formula for one answering perfectly for the rest. So the plan ought to be a help in determining the position of doubtful birds. Recent Literature. RIDGWAY'S NOMENCLATURE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.*—So many species of birds have been recently added to the North American fauna, and so many important changes have been made in the nomenclature of species previously catalogued as North American, since the publication of Dr. Coues's "Check List of North American Birds" in 1874, and especially since the appearance of Professor Baird's "Catalogue of North American Birds" in 1859, that a new check list, faithfully embodying these changes and additions, had become a necessity when Mr. Ridgway set about the preparation of the present catalogue.† Mr. Ridgway's well-known familiarity with North American birds, and his abundant resources for their investigation, render the authorship of the present catalogue eminently fitting, while its publication under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution lends to it a standing and an influence that would alone go far toward making it authoritative. Like Audubon's Synopsis" of 1839, Baird's "Catalogue" of 1859, and Coues's "Check List" of 1874, its publication marks an epoch in North American ornithology, and will form, like the preceding, a datum-point in the history of the subject. It becomes, therefore, a work of high importance and one to the consideration of which we may well give considerable space. 66 An interval of twenty years elapsed between the appearance of Audubon's Synopsis" and Baird's “ Catalogue." In 1839 our vast western territories were ornithologically almost unknown. Audubon had not then visited the Upper Missouri region, but Townsend had crossed the continent and explored hastily the plains of the Columbia and the North-west Coast, bringing therefrom many new species of birds. But the great central region and the South-west, still Mexican territory, remained untouched, During the twenty years following, this whole vast region was traversed in the interest of science. The various surveys for a railroad route to the Pacific, begun in 1853 and continued for four years. carried several *Nomenclature of North American Birds chiefly contained in the United States National Museum. By Robert Ridgway. Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 21. Published under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1881. 8vo. pp. 1–94. The memoir now under notice appeared originally several months since (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. III, pp. 163-246, Aug. 24-Sept. 4, 1880) under the title, “A Catalogue of the Birds of North America." "This catalogue," says its author, "is really the basis of the present one, which is essentially a revised edition, very materially modified, however, by numerons alterations and corrections, involving not only the change of a considerable number of names, but also the writing of a new introduction, The edition the title of which has just been quoted has not been published separately, although a number of extras were struck off for private use” (op. cit., p. 5). etc. lines of exploration across the continent to the Pacific, while a special survey was made of the boundary line separating the United States and Mexico. In the meantime agents of the Hudson's Bay Company and of the Smithsonian Institution had explored the natural history of vast portions of the great northern interior, extending from our northern frontier to the Arctic Sea. The treasures gathered from this wide area had been brought together at the Smithsonian Institution and formed the basis of Baird's monumental work on North American ornithology published in 1858, forming Vol. IX of " Reports of Explorations and Surveys for a Railroad Route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific." It is then perhaps a matter of little surprise that the 491 species known to Audubon in 1839 should have been increased to 760 - an addition of 269 — in 1859. In the nearly equal interval (twenty-one years) next following, almost the whole of the vast unsettled region west of the Mississippi was explored in detail by four regularly organized government surveys, each with their ornithological assistants, while officers of the United States Army and private collectors added greatly to our ornithological knowledge of previously almost wholly unexplored localities, to say nothing of our new territory of Alaska, the ornithology of which has now already received much attention. The accumulation of material thereby resulting has not only added many new forms but thrown much light upon the relationship of others, and rendered necessary many changes in nomenclature. In 1859 we had gathered the first fruits; we now have the mature harvest; but there is still doubtless much left for the gleaners. The additions made since 1859 are far less numerous than those which marked the period of twenty years immediately preceding, but the wonder is that they are so many rather than so few, when we consider how fully the Great West had been explored prior to 1860. In comparing the present list with that of 1859, the author observes that it contains 226 valid species and recognized races which have either been first described or added to the North American fauna since 1859, while, on the other hand, no less than 42 names of the old catalogue have been relegated to the ranks of synonymy, and 20 more removed as extralimital. Furthermore, of the remaining 698 names over 300 have been more or less amended, so that only 395 of the 760 names as given in the old catalogue are retained in the current nomenclature!" (op. cit. p. 7). The "actual number of names in the catalogue of 1859 is 764" (i. e. 760); in the present catalogue (1881), "924," an "apparent increase of 164." In the present catalogue are added 127 species and 99 subspecies, making the total, as above stated, of 226 new names. The number of names of the old catalogue, or their equivalents, retained in the new. is, species, 637, subspecies, 61, making 698 names in a total of 760, or an elimination of 62. Besides the 62 species wholly eliminated as extralimital or synonyms, 61 are reduced to subspecific rank, and 100 generic and 89 specific names have been changed. In the present catalogue only the species are separately numbered, the subspecies being indicated by letters joined to the number of the species to which the subspecies are respectively referred. |