AAA Lucas on the Affiiiitics of CJicefura. [October 



iiig plumage, and on the next or the following day another hi the 

 same plumage. Both spechnens show conclusively that they are 

 very young birds, each being in the undeveloped feather-stage 

 peculiar to altricial birds just leaving the nest. As both speci- 

 mens were taken in the same neighborhood, it is presumable that 

 they were nest companions, although one is some days more de- 

 veloped tlian the other. I have shown them to Mr. J. A. Allen, 

 who informs me that he knows of no instance of such immature 

 birds migrating. 



THE AFFINITIES OF CTLETURA. 



BY FREDERIC A. LUCAS. 



For a long time the Swifts have been debarred from the society 

 of passerine birds and made to associate with those contained in 

 that avian waste basket, termed the order Picarije. Of late, 

 however, several ornithologists, notably Mr. Sharpe and Dr. 

 Parkel", have advanced a plea for their reinstatement in the order 

 Passeres. Latest of these is Dr. Shufeldt who reaches the con- 

 clusion * that "•the Swifts are essentially modified Swallows, and., 

 as the family Cypselidai, they belong, in the order Passeres, next 

 to that" group." 



Notwithstanding the evident care of Dr. Shufeldt's work I must 

 confess myself as unconvinced by the evidence he brings forward 

 and will briefly review the case of Chc^tura as a plea for the 

 continued separation of Swifts and Swallows and the retention of 

 tlie first named family near the Hummingbirds. I am well aware 

 of the risk I run in opposing my own slight knowledge of the 

 subject to the results of Dr. vSlnifeldt's more extended studies^ 

 and it is with still greater diflidence that I venture to disagree 

 witli so distinguished a morphologist as Dr. Parker. Nevertheless, 

 imtil still more evidence to the contrary is adduced, I will hold 

 fast to Huxley's union of Hummingbirds and Swifts. As for 

 the Caprimulgidae, there are few, I think, who will object to their 



* Contribution to the Comparative Osteology of the Trochilidre, Caprimulgidre, and 

 Cypselidse. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, Dec. i 1885. 



