1 64 SHUFELDT. 



ceedings of the United States National Museum (Vol. XVII, 

 pp. 551-572 (many cuts)) a very able paper entitled "The 

 Pterylography of Certain American Goatsuckers and Owls," 

 in which all the principal North-American forms were ex- 

 amined. At the end of this memoir Mr. Clark said : " The 

 conclusion, then, to which this study of their pterylography 

 has brought me is that the Caprimulgi are related to Striges, 

 and not very distantly either — probably a branch from the 

 early part of the Strigine stem " (p. 572). 



My own opinions have been based upon a study of all the 

 characters of the groups we have under consideration ; this, to 

 a considerable extent, was the case likewise with Huxley; 

 certainly so with Fiirbringer and Gadow, while Professor 

 Newton gave the external characters and the skeleton the 

 greatest weight. This being the case, the results arrived at 

 by Mr. Clark very aptly fill in a gap that long stood greatly in 

 need of the very kind of treatment he has bestowed upon it. 



As to what relations may exist between the owls and the 

 parrots, I am, just now, not prepared to give a decided 

 opinion; certain it is, however, that we have both "owl- 

 parrots " (Stringops) and parrots in Australia that are suffi- 

 ciently "rapacious" to make good enough use of their claws 

 and hooked beaks to prey upon living sheep, and that display 

 quite as much taste for the habit as a Bubo does when he 

 kills and devours a hare. — R. W. S. 



