16 Mr. W. P. Pycraft on the 



of the book the distribution of the down is referred to as 

 'Miberall." 



This then, so far as I can make out, represents all that has 

 been written, all other references having been almost certainly 

 derived from one of these three sources. Let us now briefly 

 analyze these statements. 



Nitzsch, as all admit, was a most careful observer, but he 

 does not appear to have noticed the apterium in the spinal 

 tract of Rhynchotus rufescens, and this fact allows us 

 room for doubt whether or not it is present in the genus 

 Crypturus. The tail-feathers in my specimen of Rhyn- 

 chotus rufescens, as will be shown directly, were present, 

 though, it will be remembered, they were stated to be absent 

 by Nitzsch. In two places reference is made to thick-shafted 

 feathers, the one contradicting the other ; so far as my 

 experience goes, this feature of the feathers, notably on the 

 spinal and femoral tracts, is very marked. 



Like Nitzsch, it will be noticed, Stejneger states that the 

 tail-feathers in this group are sometimes absent. That they 

 may be but slightly developed is, as we have seen (pp. 2, 9), 

 sometimes the case, but that they are ever entirely wanting 

 is doubtful. Nitzsch, it will be remembered, definitely 

 stated that they were absent in Crypturus tataupa and 

 Rhynchotus rufescens. In my example of Rhynchotus 

 they are in process of moulting, but a few unmoulted feathers 

 remain. 



I have not had an opportunity of going carefully into the 

 presence or absence of the aftershaft, but in the few species 

 I have examined I find it developed in various degrees. In 

 Calodromas elegans, Nothura boraquira, and Rhyn- 

 chotus rufescens it is more than half as long as the main 

 stem; in Nothocercus Julius it is evidently degenerating, 

 inasmuch as the shaft is almost, if not quite, obsolete, only 

 the rami remaining. In Tinamus major! found it reduced 

 to a small shaft bearing a few rami in the case of one 

 single feather; I pulled some three or four more, and 

 there was not the smallest trace of it. 



No one appreciates more, or has profited more by, the 



