[i8S8. Notea and Neivs. 2 23 



of that Territory. The Museum has also just added by purchase a col- 

 lection of 400 bird skins collected by Dr. H. H. Rusby in Eastern Bo- 

 livia. This small gathering is especially interesting, as it comes from a 

 little known region, more than one-half of the species represented prov- 

 ing new to the Museum's previously rich collection of South American 

 birds. The Museum is also fortunate in securing, as an Assistant in the 

 Department of Ornithology, Mr. Frank M. Chapman, who has recently 

 returned from a winter's sojourn in Florida to enter upon his new duties. 

 From the recently published 'Annual Report' of the Museum for the 

 year 18S7, we learn that the number of bird skins now in the Museum is 

 about 39,000, of which 13,000 are mounted. It appears that over 21,000 

 specimens were added during the last year. Including Mr. George B. 

 Sennett's collection, the total number of specimens of birds available for 

 study at the Museum is fully 45,000. The collection of nests and eggs is 

 proportionately large. 



The subject of the voluntary interlocking of the primaries in soaring 

 birds (see Jan. Auk, pp. 126, 127) came up again for discussion at the 

 meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences, held Jan. 9 last, and 

 formed the special topic of the evening. The discussion was opened by a 

 paper by Mr. J. A. Allen, entitled 'On the Flight of Birds, with special 

 reference to recent alleged discoveries in the Mechanism of the Wing,' 

 in which he answered certain criticisms made at the previous meeting of 

 the Academy, reflecting on the motives and animus of the ornithologists, 

 and then took up the structure of birds in relation to flight, describing 

 at some length the bones and muscles involved, and the arrangement and 

 structure of the feathers. The alleged "new muscles" were shown to 

 have been well known for over a century, and by means of a freshly- 

 killed Buteo borealis it was demonstrated that the tips of the primaries, 

 when the wing is fully e.xtended, as in soaring, do not even touch each 

 other, but are separated by a considerable space, and that consequently 

 overlapping at the tip, or 'interlocking,' is simply impossible. It was 

 shown that the wing must be partly closed before the tips of the 

 primaries can be brought near enough to overlap, and that if they 

 should overlap — which they can do only in the partly closed state of the 

 wing — they would fail entirely to aid in relieving muscular strain in 

 keeping the wing distended. In short, it was shown that the 'interlock- 

 ing' claimed was not only an impossibility, but was wholly unnecessary 

 as a provision for relieving muscular tension in flight. Yet the advocate 

 of the new discovery refused to be convinced, and stated that if any one 

 expected him to 'back down' they would find themselves 'mistaken in 

 their man,' or words emphatically to this effect. Those interested in 

 the original paper and in the discussion which followed it will find the 

 subject quite fully reported in the Academy's 'Transactions' (Vol. VII, 

 giving reports of the meetings for November and December, 1887, and 

 January, iSSS). 



