290 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



always slender, aud when closed forms a tube by the inclosure of the 

 under mandible between the flexible edges of the npper, the tip of both 

 being acuminate. The tongue is slender and very extensile, like that of 

 the woodpeckers, the two branches of the hyoid curving, when the 

 tongue is drawn Avithiu the bill, upward around the back of the skull and 

 then forward over the top of the head. Instead, however, of its being, 

 as in the Woodpeckers, solid and tipped with a barbed horny x)oint, it 

 is hollow and divided at the tip into two slender branches, each of 

 which is fringed on the outer margin by a thin membrane. 



In all other characters, the Humming Birds possess nothing abso- 

 lutely peculiar, although certain features, shared by other groups of 

 birds, notably the Swifts (Micropodidcv), are developed to an extreme 

 degree; as, for example, the very high keel to the sternum and conse- 

 quent excessive development of the pectoral muscles, the short arm- 

 wing (humerus) and extremely long hand-wing (manus), and minute 

 feet with relatively large, strongly curved, and sharp claws. The Hum- 

 ming Birds and Swifts further agree in numerous anatomical charac- 

 ters, and there can be no doubt that they are more closely related to 

 each other than are either to any other group of birds. In fact, except 

 in the shape of the bill and structure of the bones of the face, the Hum- 

 ming Birds and Swifts present no definite differences of osteological 

 structure. 



As being probably more familiar with the anatomy of Humming Birds 

 than any other person, having made the subject one of special and 

 painstaking investigation, Mr. Frederic A. Lucas, of the National 

 Museum, has, at my request, prepared for this work a brief summary of 

 the osteological and some other anatomical characters of the Troch- 

 ilidcc, which I take great pleasure in presenting herewith : 



Pterylosis. — The manner in which the feathers of a bird are arranged is termed its 

 pterylosis', and this varies in the difl'erent groups of birds, none, save the Peuguine, 

 having the body completely and evenly covered with feathers, the plumage ordinarily 

 being distributed in well-defined patches, known as feather-tracts or pterylce, inter- 

 spersed with bare spots called apleria. 



Comparatively little is known of the pterylosis of Humming Birds, only a few out 

 of the several hundred species having been thus described, but that of Florisuf/a 

 melUvora, shown in the accompanying figures, does not differ materially from what has 

 been found iu other species. Like other characters, the pterylosis of Humming 

 Birds seems to a great extent to be peculiar to the group, although both Humming 

 Birds and Swifts agree iu having the hmg, narrow, bare tracts down the back, and 

 under the throat, as well as a similar disi^osition of the feathers on the under side of 

 the body. Some of the Swifts, too, possess the bare space on the back of the neck, 

 and, while this is usually quite short, yet in the species that makes the edible nests 

 {Collocalia fuciphaga) , and which has a very long neck, the nape tract is also long. 



There is, however, one curious feature common to both those groups of birds, this 

 being the existence of a small, naked patch near the tip of the wing, above and be- 

 low, colored black. This is not known to occur at all amoug Passeres, and has not as 

 yet been found iu any of our small North American species of Hummiug Birds, al- 

 though very conspicuous in many large southern forms, such as Campylopierus. 



The pterylosis of all birds is more or less adaptive, having some direct relation to 

 their habits, and this adaptation is well seen in Humming Birds. The bare tracts on 



