318 PROF. d'aUCY W. THOMPSON ON THE [M^^- 2, 



lated between the fourth and fifth cubitals, and another intercalated 

 feather is present at the carpal joint. 



Text-fis. SI. 



Part of the wing of Patagona, dorsal view. 



a(?., 'aquintoeubital' feather ; t.med., t.maj., vaedasm anrl major coverts; 

 carp., placed over an apparently intercalated covert at the wrist-joint. 



All these belong clearly to a single row or series, and this series 

 is further prolonged proxiinally beyond the corresponding row of 

 remiges into a series of some five or six feathers that course dorsal- 

 wards along the humerus to merge with the humeral tract. 



The median coverts are in each case placed a little in front of 

 their corresponding majors. There are in the primary series ten, 

 beginning with that in the interspace of the wrist. There are 

 three only on the cubitus, corresponding to the second, third, and 

 fourth secondaries, reckoning inwards. 



The account liere given is not entirely satisfactory to me, but I 

 cannot from the examination of a single specimen arrive at 

 greater certainty. My difficulty arises from the fact that I do 

 not recognize a ' remicle,' and that I am not quite sure of the 

 nature of the apparently intercalated 'carpal' covert. This 

 latter, from its small size and from its position, one would 

 naturally assume to be an intercalated or supernumerary one, 

 especially as we shall see it to be still better shown in the Swift, 

 and to be associated with a rudimentary remex in the Croats ucker. 

 On the other hand, it lies directly opposite to a ventral covert 

 which seems clearly associated with the first primary. The ventral 

 major coverts, moreover, are all distinctly proximal to their 

 corresponding primaries, while those of the dorsal side, unless 

 we reckon the ' carpal ' covert as the first of the primary series, 

 are more and more distal to theirs. In the one case, the feather 

 on the outer side of the tenth primary is to be interpreted as a 

 remicle, in the other as the tenth major covert. I have merely 

 described the feathers I have seen, and admit the possibility of a 

 difference of interpretation. 



