ISS6.J Recent Literature. 40 S 



modified Swallows, and, as the family Cypselida?, thej belong in the 

 order Passeres, next to that group." Here we must enter a most decided 

 protest, quoting, as we do. Prof. W. K. Parker, perhaps the most compe- 

 tent anatomist living. He sajs of the Swallow*: "In this remarkable 

 group of tender-billed Passerines, there is not, as far as I am aware, a sin- 

 gle aberrant character of importance. The skull, the skeleton generally, the 

 digestive and the vocal organs, — all these might belong to species of the 

 genus Sylvia. And yet, in minor adaptive modifications (I say minor in 

 reference to what is of importance in morphology), these birds are full of 

 modifications, and to the unscientific eye they appear to belong to the kind 

 of the Swifts, and not to the kind of the ordinary Warblers. The Swifts, 

 however, lie on the extreme margin of the Coracomorplije, and form an- 

 other group, which leads to the Goatsuckers ; but the Swallows have re- 

 tained (or gained) that perfect syrinx which is the sign and the seal of 

 their right to the title ' Oscines.'" And of the Swifts he says (op. cit.) 

 p. 295) : "Although the border of the Swifts falls to them close on that 'top- 

 land' of the Passerines where the Swallows congregate, yet are these con- 

 terminous groups only 'second cousins,' and more alike in their habits and 

 mode of dress than in their real nature. . . . Now a Swift, as to his skull 

 and face, is merely an exaggerated Swallow, an ultra-hirundine bird, a 

 caricature, as it were, of the true Passerine gaping birds. In the skeleton 

 he comes close to the Humming-bird ; in the huge disproportion in length 

 of the arm to the hand even the Swallow begins to be very Cyfselinc; 

 but the Swift and the Humming-bird are here as one. So also, are they in 

 the sternum and shoulder-girdle; the Swift also has lost the ' cteca coli,' 

 and has not developed any intrinsic muscles to the syrinx." 



Is it possible that Dr. Shufeldt has overlooked the many points in 

 which Swallows and Swifts disagree outside of the skeleton .' It maybe 

 well to enumerate some of the most salient features, and for that reason 

 we introduce the following brief statement from the 'Standard Natural His- 

 tory,' IV (1SS5), p. 437 : " Externally they may be easily distinguished; 

 the Swifts by having ten primaries, not more than seven secondaries, and 

 only ten tail-feathers; while the Swallows have but nine primaries, at least 

 nine secondaries, and twelve tail-feathers. The Swifts have also the dor- 

 sal track bifurcate between the shoulders, while in the Swallows it is sim- 

 ple. Internally they differ in a great number of points, but we shall only 

 mention that the Swifts have a sternum, while the Swallows have the 

 manubrium bifurcate, and the posterior border deeply two-notched ; the 

 former have a myological formula A -7-, the latter A X Y -7- ; the former 

 are synpelmous, the latter are schizopelmous ; the former have a peculiar 

 arrangement of the tensor patagii brevis, the latter have the general ar- 

 rangement of the Passeres; the former have a simple syrinx without in- 

 trinsic muscles, the latter have a very specialized syrinx; the former are 

 without c,x^ca,xthe Swallows possess them, etc., the total effect being that 

 the Swifts are Picarians and the Swallow-s are Passeres." 



* Trans. Zool. Sec. London, X, 1878, p. 293. 



