288 Mr. H. Seebolim on the number of Secondaries in Birds. 



agrees that the total number of unabbreviated secondaries 

 is alike in the two species, makes it 10 ; and^ for some inscru- 

 table reason^ divides those of the Corn Crake into 9 typical and 

 1 aberrant, but those of the Water Rail into 7 typical and 

 3 aberrant. 



The wing of the Coot, Fulica atra, exactly resembles those 

 of the Corn Crake and Water Rail, but Sundevall makes it 

 consist of 9 typical and 3 aberrant unabbreviated primaries. 



If further investigation should prove that in the family 

 Rallidae there are never more than 9 unabbreviated secon- 

 daries, and in the family Charadriidee never less than 12, we 

 have a most valuable external character by which a Rail may 

 be distinguished from a Sandpiper, and which we may at 

 once apply to the remarkable bird Tringa leucoptera, which 

 many ornithologists regard as a Rail. So far as it is possible 

 to ascertain without relaxing the specimen in the Leyden 

 Museum, which is in a very fragile condition, it has at least 

 10 unabbreviated secondaries, so that the imperfect evidence 

 at our command confirms the original determination of the 

 bird as a Sandpiper. 



Turning now to Sundevall's synopsis, we find that a remark- 

 able character presents itself in all the Gallinse which he ap- 

 pears to have examined. These birds differ from all the others 

 contained in his list in having an abbreviated 1st secondary. 

 Bastard primaries are common enough, especially amongst 

 the family Turdidae, but bastard secondaries are probably 

 confined to Game Birds. 



The wing of the Pheasant, Phasianus colchicus, is con- 

 structed as follows : — 

 10 primaries ; 

 1 abbreviated secondary, an inch and a half or more 

 shorter than the rest. 

 10 unabbreviated secondaries, followed by several abbre- 

 viated ones, of which the first is not abbreviated 

 more than an eighth of an inch. 



In the Red-legged Partridge, Caccabis rufa, the bastard 

 secondary is Ij inches shorter than the second secondary, but 

 there appear to be only 9 unabbreviated secondaries. 



