98 PTERYLOGRAPHY. 



inserted in a circlet of feathers which may be observed upon the tail itself behind the anus. 

 An interesting peculiarity of the Woodpeckers, which occurs elsewhere, so far as I know, only in 

 Alcedo, is the absence of a nestling down-plumage in the young, which are perfectly naked 

 until the permanent feathers make their appearance. 



4. Picumnus minutus. Pterylosis exactly as in our indigenous Woodpeckers ; that is to say ) 

 the dorsal tract is twice interrupted, and the simple rump-band is very weak. In this species, 

 also, I found twelve tail-feathers and ten primaries, of which the fourth and iifth are the 

 longest. 



5. Yunx torquitta. Pterylosis, also, as in most of the Woodpeckers, especially the indi- 

 genous species ; but the femoral tract is still more distinct, biserial, and complete even to the apex 

 of the thigh. Twenty-one remiges ; ikejirsf scarcely perceptible, the second and third the longest. 

 Twelve rectrices ; the outermost, as in the Woodpeckers, concealed between the two preceding. 

 In young birds I observed the same circlet of warts on the outside of the heel-joint which I 

 have above described (p. 94) in Micropogon erythropygos. 



1. 



Contour-feathers with a large and distinct after-shaft, very sparsely distributed, probably 

 present in smaller comparative number than in any other Birds ; and hence there are down- 

 feathers not unfrequently between them, especially on the head and neck, and also on the 

 spaces, and sometimes imperfect powder-down tracts on the pelvis. Oil-gland, when present, 

 with a circlet of feathers on the long, thin, cylindrical tip. There are from twenty to twenty-four 

 remiges in the wing, but always four feathers on the thumb and fwelve tail-feathers. The form 

 of the tracts varies ; they are sometimes remarkably broad, sometimes narrow. 



Out of 208 species of this family cited by Wagler in his Monograph, 1 I have been able to 

 examine only about thirty, and I therefore do not venture to speak in general terms of the 

 differences of the pterylosis, which appear, from my observations, to be not inconsiderable. I 

 shall cite those species which I have investigated in Wagler's genera, and describe the position 

 of their feathers in detail so far as it is necessary. 



1. Sittace WAGL. Of the large, long-tailed Macaws (Macrocercus VJEILL.), I have carefully 

 examined Psittacus macao AUCTT. I found the head uniformly but sparsely feathered, with 

 the exception of its perfectly naked spots, and from it two tracts issue. One of these commences 

 at the throat, close behind the margin of the very large lower mandible, immediately behind 

 which, probably in all Parrots, there is a semicircular naked space ; this tract is broader than 

 the second, which starts from the nape, where the plumage of the head itself is narrowed. The 

 first tract, the commencement of the inferior tract, consists of five or six rows of feathers, and 

 remains simple for fully half the length of the neck, but then forks and passes, with very little 

 divergence of the two limbs, each three feathers in width, as far as the furcula, over which it 

 runs and then passes, four feathers in width, upon the surface of the breast. From this point 

 each half becomes visibly broader, extending both towards the arm and towards the crest of the 

 sternum, so much that almost the entire surface of the pectoral muscles is covered by them. 

 Nevertheless, each band, even at its widest part, consists only of six, or at the utmost 



1 ' Monographia Psittacorum/ Monach., 1835, 4to. 



