SWIFTS 109 



others it comes much nearer to that of the true 

 Swallows {Hirundinidse). This also is confirmed 

 by Prof. Parker. In his monograph upon the 

 Humming-birds (Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1890) Mr. 

 Robert Ridgway (in the words of Dr. Shufeldt 

 when reviewing it in the Awierican Naturalist, Oct. 

 1892) "still adheres to that now well-nigh exploded 

 notion that the Plumming- birds are more or less 

 closely related to the Swifts. He states (p. 290) 

 that ' except in the shape of the bill and structure 

 of the bones of the face, the Humming-birds and 

 Swifts present no definite difi'erences of osteological 

 structure.' " " This statement," says Dr. Shufeldt, 

 " is not only not true, but as wide of the mark as 

 it can be. ... As a matter of fact, when we come 

 to compare the skeleton of a typical Swift with 

 that of a typical Humming-bird, we find the most 

 radical differences existing in nearly every part. As 

 Huxley and other capable anatomists have long ago 

 shown, the skull and associate skeletal parts of a 

 Swift depart not very markedly from the correspond- 

 ing structures in a Swallow." Having regard to 

 these opinions, I have adopted the view of Prof. 

 Parker, and follow the systematic arrangement of 

 Prof. Newton by placing the Swallows at the end of 

 the Passeres and the Swifts at the head of the 

 Picarix. As to the employment of the generic 

 name Cypselus, see The Ibis, 1897, p. 290. 



The Common Swift is a well-known summer 

 visitor to the British Islands, generally distributed — 

 though of irregular appearance in the north of 



