10 Mr. W. P. Pycraft on the 



The Pterylugraphy of the Nestlings 0/ Calodromas elegans 

 and Nothura maculosa. 



Dr. Sclater has kindly sent me two young birds of the 

 former and one of the latter species. Of these the first 

 two (C elegans) were preserved in spirit, one was "just 

 hatched/^ and the other was a bird ready to emerge from 

 the shell. The specimen of Nothura wa,s "hatched in the 

 incubator/' and is a " skin.'' 



Distribution of the Nestling - down -feat hers or 

 Neossoptiles. — In examining the pterylosis of nestling 

 birds, it must be remembered that the down-feathers occupy 

 the exact position of the future definitive feathers (true down 

 does not appear till after these feathers are assumed), so that 

 we should expect to find little or no difi'erence between the 

 pterylosis of the adult and nestling. In the present case 

 these conditions obtain. 



Pterylosis of the Tru7ik.—As has just been implied, 

 the pterylosis of this region does not difi'er from that of the 

 adult, at least so far as I can make out. I ought here to 

 state that the examination of the nestlings was, of necessity, 

 less thorough than that of the adult, inasmuch as in the 

 latter all the feathers were clipped close to the body, a pro- 

 ceeding I felt I ought not to adopt with the young birds. 

 I therefore contented myself with carefully moving aside 

 the plumage while the specimen was fastened dow'n in spirit. 

 There could be no doubt whatever as to the main features, 

 e. g. the spinal, cervical, femoral apteria. 



Pterylosis of the Wing, — As with the trunk, so with 

 the wing ; one or two points, however, deserve notice. 



Remiges. — The metacarpo-digital remiges (^primaries) 

 are not so far developed as in a ripe embryo of the common 

 fowl, in that, in the fowl, remiges 1 to 7 (and cubitals of the 

 same number) have pushed their way some distance beyond 

 the post-axial border of the wing. In the present case only 

 the extreme tips of the primaries 4 to 8 have as yet appeared. 



The cubital remiges are still less developed, since there is 

 yet no sign of the definitive feathers. The down-feathers. 



