1888. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, 95 
internal surface of both metacarpals, and is inserted into the 
base of the second phalange of the middle digit, a slip sometimes 
extending to the tip of the digit. Its function is to bend the 
terminal phalange of the middle finger, which runs to, and forms 
the tip of the bony framework of the wing. This is Prof. 
Trowbridge’s new muscle. 
16. Hxtensor pollicis brevis, and 1%. Adductor pollicis are 
small muscles concerned alone with the thumb. 
18. Flexor digiti tertii.—Originates on the third metacarpal 
and is inserted at the base of the third digit; helps to flex the 
second and third fingers. 
In addition to these eighteen muscles, present in most birds, 
a little bundle of muscular fibres runs from the outer edge of the 
ulna to the base of each of the secondary quills. These little 
quill muscles are named by Sundvall Rector remigum cubiti. No 
muscles, or even muscular fibres, are in any way connected with 
the primaries. ‘Those running to the secondaries act as a stay, 
and greatly strengthen their attachment to the ulna, to which 
they are affixed merely by their extreme base. No such provi- 
sion is necessary in the case of the primaries, which are deeply 
imbedded in firm tissue. . 
This concludes my brief synopsis of the muscles of the wing, 
for aid in compiling which, and for a tracing of one of the best 
drawings of the wing-muscles extant, I am indebted to my 
friend, Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, of Washington, one of the most 
eminent and scholarly ornithologists of the day. ‘The literature 
of this part of the subject is simply immense; the minute anat- 
omy of the wing having been the subject of numerous elaborate 
special memoirs in various languages, running back for more 
than a century. The best authorities on thesubject are German 
and Scandinavian, and, so far as I know, their works are not ac- 
cessible in the libraries of this city. Not being able to find the 
works here I wished to consult, I was compelled to appeal for 
assistance to my friend Dr. Stejneger. VPreschtl, in 1846, pub- 
lished a very elaborate memoir on the anatomy of birds’ wings, 
on which my synopsis is mainly based. 
In the present state of avian anatomy, it is extremely rash for 
any one to claim the discovery of a new muscle in the wing, or 
in any other part of a bird’s body, till he has made himself 
thoroughly familiar with the work of his predecessors. In illus- 
tration of this point, I may say that a certain writer on the 
anatomy of birds, who has published more pages of text and 
many more and finer anatomical drawings than any of his con- 
temporaries, has twice had the mortification of finding his al- 
leged discoveries in the anatomy of the wing shown to have been 
made years before he ever put pen to paper. Dr. Coues’s brief 
