Recott Lifcrature. 



421 



swifts, liumming-birds, nixlit-liawks. eti.. in which there is never anv 

 emargination. 



" Again, the emargination varies in extent, being liinited in nianj birds 

 to the first primary alone, and to the extreme apical portion of this; in 

 others it occurs on the apical portion onlj, say for two to four inches, of 

 perhaps the outer four to six primaries ; while in very many birds, includ- 

 ing the turkey buzzard and its allies, and many hawks, it extends to the 

 basal third or fourth of all the outer primaries. 



" Having now shown that interlocking does not and cannot take place, 

 it may be worth while further to point out that it is unnecessary. 



"In a soaring bird, no great muscular tension is called into action. 

 The large pectoral muscles, which move the wings up and down, are in a 

 state of equilibrium, and under very slight tension, not more than are the 

 muscles of a man's arm when the arm is in an ordinary position of rest. 

 The mechanism of the bony framework is such, as has been already 

 shown, that the wing is kept extended in such a way that there can be 

 only very slight strain on any of the numerous muscles of the wing itself. 

 The extension of the primaries is automatically effected by the extension 

 of the wing, and results in no special strain, when once the wing is fully 

 extended, upon any of the muscles whose function is to flex and extend 

 the outer or phalangeal segments of the pinion. Hence the comparison 

 made at the meeting of December 12th, of a man's arm held extended 

 at a right angle to the body, in an unnatural position, with a bird's wing 

 held extended in soaring, in a perfectly natural position, was whollv 

 irrelevant. 



" The hypothesis of the interlocking of the primaries during protracted 

 soaring, to conserve energy and lessen fatigue, has not only no basis in 

 fact, but is entirely gratuitous." — E. C. 



Birds of Morris County, New Jersey. — Nearly a year ago tiic list to 

 which attention is now called* was published in a local newspaper, and 

 as the distribution of New Jersey birds is known inferentiallyrather than 

 by any recent and reliable published information, such an excellent list 

 as the present one seems worthy of wider notice. It is the result of over 

 four years' work in the northern part of the State and numbers 205 species 

 and subspecies, not a large number, to be sure, but it must be remembered 

 that Morris county is inland, and the usual array of water birds that 

 goes to swell many lists is therefore wanting, although some occur as 

 stragglers. The summer residents are mostly Alleghanian with a con- 

 siderable sprinkling of Carolinian forms, such as Cardiiialis cardi/ialis, 

 Seiufiis motacilla, Mimus polyglottos, Thryothorus ludoviciantis, Par us 

 hicolor, and others less distinctive, while little needs be said of the 

 migrants and accidental visitors recorded. Few local lists can boast of 

 two species relegated to the hypothetical list of the A. O. U. Check List 

 A specimen of HelmhitJiophila lawre?icei, and two of H. leucobronchiulis 



*A List of Birds of Morris County, New jersey. By E. Carleton Thurber, True 

 Democratic Banner, Morrisfown, N. J., Nov. 10, 17, 24, 1887. 



