I02 Jeffries on the Primaries of Birds. 



tufts can be seen. But this is not all ; at the extreme tip of the 

 linger can be seen a well developed claw. Passing now to the 

 adult wild Dusky Duck (Anas obscura) we find ten developed 

 primaries, nine well developed coverts and two " little feathers." 

 which, by the way, are good sized. These two little feathers are 

 in precisely the same relative positions as in Melospiza and 

 represent the aborted first primary and first covert. A year ago 

 I made an examination of the last phalanx of the second finger 

 for a claw but only found a slight trace of it in one case out of 

 about twenty, so that we may fairly class the claw as an organ 

 now functionless and accordingly disappearing. The same con- 

 dition of the wing holds good for all the Ducks examined by me. 

 They were the following : CEdemia perspicillata, Afias obscura. 

 Aix sponsa, Qucrquedula carolinensis. Bucephaia islandica. 



Among the Limicolce I have examined the young of I 'ancllits 

 cristatus and of the Woodcock (Philohela minor). In the 

 young of the Spur-wing there are distinctly eleven primaries and 

 ten coverts. In the young, however, I have been unable to find 

 more than ten among adult birds of this group. I have examined 

 the following and found all but the last to have " little feathers" : 

 Charadrius fulvus, Strepsilas interpres, sEgialites scmipal- 

 niatits, Ereunetes scmipaimatus. Totanus mclanolcucus. Y'<>- 

 tauits fiavipes. Tringoidcs macular ins (young) . Philohela minor \ 



Of Sea-fowl I have been able, through the kindness of Mr. J. 

 A. Allen, to examine the young of a Gull, an Auk and a Petrel. 

 In the first case I found eleven primaries and ten coverts ; in the 

 second, the same numbers and a terminal claw : in the third case. 

 only ten primaries and ten coverts. 



Mr. Allen also gave me for examination two young of the 

 South African Ostrich. Here the primaries and secondaries 

 run in a straight line from the elbow to the tip of the II finger 

 and have no connection with the little III finger. Hence it is 

 difficult to say how many spring from the hand and how many 

 from the arm, certainly seventeen and perhaps eighteen, there 

 being about thirty-two in all. Whether we call these primaries 

 depends on our ideas of phylogenetic relations of the Struthiones. 

 If these are degredational forms from flying birds then we must 

 call them the representatives of primaries; if, on the other hand, 

 the Ostriches never flew they ought. I suppose, to be considered a,s 

 simple contour feathers. 



