another instance of the specialization of the Swifts along various lines, 

 and also as showing the structural variation among different members of 

 the group. In Macropteryx the deltoid is well-developed and arises from 

 •two heads as in the Passeres. In Cypseloidcs, Micropus, Collocalia, and 

 Tachornis, the deltoid is single and reduced in size, being proportionally 

 smallest in Tachornis. Finally, as stated above, the deltoid is quite absent 

 in Chcetura ipelagica, this being a step beyond what is found among the 

 Hummingbirds, where the deltoid is present though small. It would be 

 interesting to know if other members of the genus Chcetura lack the 

 •deltoid, and also what is the condition of this muscle in Hemiprocne. 

 Dr. Shufeldt's figure of the wing muscles of Chcetura (Linn. Soc. 

 Journ. Zool. XX, pi. 22, fig. 29) shows that he too found this muscle 

 absent, although nothing is said about it in the text. 



I would be extremely grateful to any one for alcoholic specimens of 

 Hemiprocne or any species of CJurtura save pclagica. — F. A. Lucas, 

 Washington, D. C. 



The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Virginia and Maryland. — My friend, 

 Mr. P. Henry Azlett, of Azlett, King William County, Virginia, recently 

 sent me for identification an adult specimen of this bird {Milvulus forfi- 

 catus) which was shot by a farmer near that place on August 31, 1895. 

 The bird is in poor, half moulted condition. This is, I believe, the fourth 

 record of this bird for Virginia, and it is of course possible that some or 

 all were escaped cage birds. The late Mr. O. N. Bryan of Bryan's Point, 

 Maryland, on the Potomac River just below Washington, once told me 

 that in August of a year about the close of the war while he was in a deep 

 ravine near his home, called Johnson's Gully, he was overtaken by a 

 severe storm, and saw one of these birds which had evidently sought the 

 seclusion of the same place for shelter. — William Palmer, Washington, 

 D. C. 



The Raven in Illinois. — I wish to place on record the capture of a speci- 

 men of Corvus corax principalis, at Mendosia, 111., Oct. 23, 1892. I was 

 at that time making a collection of birds for the State, and was living with 

 the crew of the United States Fish Commission. The bird had been seen 

 for a week or more previous to this time, flying about Lake Mendosia, a 

 body of water opening into the Illinois River. The lake is seven miles 

 long and three quarters of a mile wide. A number of attempts had been 

 made by market shooters to obtain the bird for me, but they could not get 

 within gunshot, and so were unsuccessful. 



One day, however, as I was passing through a herd of cattle, the bird 

 flew very low and I obtained it with a charge of number five shot. The 

 specimen, a female, had been feeding upon carrion, and the odor from the 

 body was as disagreeable as that from Cathartes aura. The plumage is 

 exceptionally fine; the body is deep blue black; from the secondaries to 

 the primary coverts, the color is rich brownish bronze. The following 



