286 Mr. H, Seebohm on Sundevall's Account 



XXVIII. — Some Remarks on Sundevall's Account in the 

 number of Secondaries of Birds. By Henry Seebohm. 



The readers of ' The Ibis ' are very much indebted to the 

 Editors of that periodical for giving them a translation of so 

 suggestive a paper as that bySundevall on the Wings of Birds 

 (Ibis, 1886, pp. 389-457). I use the word "suggestive/' 

 because in the portion which I have studied the facts are 

 only approximately accurate, and the reader is left to draw 

 his own conclusions from them. In the first place, we may 

 dismiss the word arm-remiges to the limbo of useless syno- 

 nyms and adopt the commonly used term of secondary quills : 

 usually called, for the sake of brevity, secondaries. 



I propose to confine my remarks to three groups of birds : — 

 Gallince, or Game Birds ; Grallce, or Cranes and Bails ; Limi- 

 colcB, or Plovers and Snipes. 



All these birds have 10 primaries ; the question to be con- 

 sidered is : — Are there any characters to be found in the 

 secondaries by which these three families may be distinguished 

 from each other ? 



To begin with the Common Lapwing, Vanellus cristatus, 

 the wing consists of — 

 10 primaries ; 



12 nearly black secondaries ; 



3 long green secondaries; beyond which are several 

 abbreviated secondaries, each shorter than the one 

 preceding it. 

 Sundevall says that it has — 



14 secondaries nearly alike in structure and size ; 



2 secondaries, which, without being abbreviated, pos- 



sess a decidedly different form ; 



3 secondaries, decidedly shorter. 



What Sundevall means, I am sure I do not know ; but 

 suffice it to note that it is only after the 15th secondary that 

 abbreviations begin. 



Let us now examine the wing of a Curlew, Numenius 

 arquatus, which consists of — 

 10 primaries ; 



