1890] Rccc7it Literature. 



279 



The Trogons are found, as would be expected, to be widely separated 

 from the Caprimulgine forms and the Hummingbirds, and to have no 

 very close relationship with either the Cuckoos or the Kingfishers. 



The Swallows are considered as a specialized group of Passeres, consid- 

 erably modified through "physiological adaptations of structure." 



As regards the general conclusions reached respecting the Macrochires, 

 Dr. Shufeldt contends that the Caprimulgine birds are so far removed in 

 structure from all other birds that they should rank as a separate order, 

 the Caprimulgi, with the Owls as their nearest kin, and as having "no 

 special affinity with the Cypseli, much less with the Trochili." He pro- 

 poses also to give the Swifts the rank of an order, Cypseli. "This order, 

 were it represented by a circle, would be found just outside the enormous 

 Passerine circle, but tangent to a point in its periphery opposite the 

 Swallows." He still contends strongly for the ordinal rank of the Tro- 

 chili. In comparing the two groups, Swifts and Hummingbirds, he 

 claims that they "have been associated together upon an entirely false 

 system of classification, which assumed first, that they are alike in their 

 wing-structure — a resemblance which I have shown to l»e purely superfi- 

 cial ; secondly, that they both have an unnotched sternum, although 

 physiological law demands it, and when associated with an entire organi- 

 zation that widely differs from that of another form which may happen to 

 possess an unnotched sternum, it means nothing so far as affinity is con- 

 cerned. This becomes the more evident when the sterna themselves are 

 fashioned upon essentially different plans, as is the case in the Cypseli 

 and Trochili." 



The seven lithographic plates illustrating the present memoir give the 

 pterylosis, skull, and other parts of the anatomy of Ampclis cedrorum, 

 Antrostomus vociferus, and Trochilus calliope, and the skull and skeleton 

 of Trogon mexicanus, the skid Is of Phahriioptilus nuttalli, Micropus 

 melanolcucus, several species of Trochilus, Prognc subis, C/telidon ery- 

 throgaster, Tachyciucta thalassiua, Tyranuus wrticali's, etc., and side 

 views of the plucked bodies of Micropus melanolcucus, Chcetura pelagica, 

 and Trochilus platycerctis. — J. A. A. 



Shufeldt on the Osteology of the North American Passeres.* — In this 

 paper the osteology of the leading types of the North American Passeres 

 is reviewed, followed by a rearrangement of the families in accordance 

 with the author's conclusions. The skeletal characters of Myadcstes 

 prove to be eminently Turdine. Good cranial characters are found for 

 the constitution of Lophofhanes as a full genus. The families recognized 

 are the same as those of the A. O. U. Check-List, with their limits the 

 same, but the order of succession is radically changed, without, we fear, 

 in -some instances at least, very obvious improvement, even granting that 



* Contributions to the Comparative Osteology of Families of the North American 

 Passeres. By R. W. Shufeldt, M. D., C. M. Z. S. Journ. of Morph., Vol. Ill, No. 1 

 June, 1889, pp. 81-112, pll. v, vi. 



