32 Dr. R. W. Slinfeldt on the Taxonomy 



III. — On the Taxonomy of the Swifts and Htimming -birds : a 

 Rejoinder. By Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, C.M.Z.S. 



It is with no small degree of interest, and with a eonsi- 

 derable degree of profit, that I have read Mr. Lucases recent 

 article on the classification of the Swifts and Humming- 

 birds *. And, coming as it does from the pen of a scientific 

 avian osteologist as a criticism of an article of mine on the 

 same subject -j-, it is especially valuable, and more than worthy 

 of careful consideration. Some of his objections to my views 

 I believe 1 have already answered in another place X ', while 

 much that I put forth in support of my convictions in 'The 

 Ibis ' last January he has thus far failed to meet. Believing, 

 as we must, that this matter, when settled, will be settled by 

 the weight of biological facts and not by the weight of 

 authority, it would seem nevertheless that my critic is 

 entitled to a brief reply to his question as to '' precisely who, 

 among ornithologists, have accepted his [my] conclusions 

 that the Swifts are practically Swallows and have no relations 

 with the Humming-birds ^' {op. cit. p. 365). 



In the first place, Dr. Shufeldt does not believe that the 

 " Swifts are practically Swallows '^ ; but, on the other hand, 

 he does believe that those two groups are derived from a 

 common ancestral stock §, and that the Swifts are not espe- 

 cially related to the Humming-birds. It seems to me that 

 that statement is clear enough. Next as to my " persistently 

 misquoting " Professor Huxley^s views in the premises : not 

 exactly misquoting him, as Mr. Lucas says, but using his 

 words "' to convey a false impression.^' Upon more occasions 

 than one I have distinctly named the groups of birds that 

 Huxley included in his ''■ Cypselomorphce," and claimed that 

 it " was done upon only too few characters, and mainly 

 based upon the osteological ones seen at the base of the 

 skull" II . That can hardly be termed a " most unfair kind 



* < The Ibis,' 1803, pp. 365-371. 



t Ihid. pp. 84-100. 



X ' The American Naturalist,' 1893, pp. 367-371. 



§ Journ. Linn. Soc, Zool. xx. p. 390. 



II Amer. Nat., April 1893, p. 370. 



