624 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 229 



viate the necessity of my further alluding to them 

 here. 



Among my manuscripts in the hands of publishers, 

 I have some very extensive work uijon the myology 

 of birds, illustrated by nearly a hundred original 

 drawings; and, as many of my friends are aware, I 

 have been engaged for a number of months past 

 upon my second contribution to the anatomy of the 

 Macrochires, a work now drawing towards comple- 

 tion. Quite recently, while investigating the muscu- 

 lar system of the Hirundinidae,in this latter connec- 

 tion, I discovered, in the course of my dissections, a 

 muscle for which at this moment I recall no pub- 

 lished description, and one the importance of which 

 Garrod, even if he knew of its existence, certainly 

 overlooked. When present, its chief carneous por- 



delicate tendon, runs along within the free marginal 

 fold of the patagium of the wing, in common with 

 the tendon of the tensor patagii longus, to blend with 

 it just before arriving at the carjsal joint. 



Garrod chose the wing of Eamphastos cuvieri to 

 illustrate the arrangement of the patagial muscles in 

 the Passeres, but not a hint of this one is given ; 

 while in the figure (Icterus vulgaris) next to it a 

 tendinal sliij is shoAvn cut short, of which he says 

 nothing, but which evidently belongs to this muscle. 

 Nowhere else is this shown or alluded to in his 

 work. 



I propose to call this muscle the ' dermo-tensor 

 patagii,' it being partially connected with the in- 

 tegumentary system of muscles in the birds wherein 

 I have thus far found it. 



Fig. 1. — View, prom the outer side, op the muscles op the patagium op the left wing op a passerine bird' 



Rhamphastos cuvieri (apter garrod, and slightly reduced prom original). 

 Pig. 2. —Same view, and corresponding parts op the same wing of a passerine biiid, Progne subis (by the present 



WRITER). 



ip. I., teiisor patagii longus; tp. &., tensor patagii br'evis; dt.j)., dermo-tensor patagii; e. m. r. I., extensor metacarpi 

 radialis longus ; t., triceps ; b., biceps ; S. B., secondary rerainges (fig. 2 nearly X 2). 



tion occurs in the free marginal fold of that triangu- 

 lar duplicature of the common integuments found 

 between the root of the neck and the tip of the 

 shoulder in birds. It first came to my notice in a 

 siDCcimen of Progne siibis, whereupon I at once 

 dissected a number of other individuals of the same 

 species ; and I found it equally well developed in 

 all of them. 



This muscle, in part, is a dermal muscle, and arises 

 from the integuments on the anterior aspect of the 

 neck at about its lower third ; at its origin its fibres 

 spread out fan-fashion, their terminal fibres meeting 

 those of the muscle of the opposite side in the 

 median line. Here it is quite adherent to the skin, 

 but its fibres rapidly converge as they pass in the 

 direction of the shoulder-joint, opi^osite which re- 

 gion they gradually free themselves from the skin to 

 form a small fusiform muscle, which, ending in a 



Upon dissection, I find it present in each and all 

 of the other United States Hirundinidae ; in all true 

 passerine birds, including Ampelis ; but absent in the 

 Caprimulgi, in the Trochili, in the Cypseli, and, if 

 we may judge for all the tyi^ical Passeres meso- 

 myodi from the condition in Tyrannus tyrannus, it 

 is also wholly absent in them. Further than this, I 

 have not investigated the matter, as my work on the 

 Macrochires prevents ; but it will be highly interest- 

 ing, to say nothing of its imisortance, to look up the 

 subject for other groups of birds. Its importance at 

 once becomes evident by finding it in such a form as 

 Ampelis, showing by this character, at least, the 

 passerine affinities of this bird over its clamatorial 

 ones, which latter have been more than once sus- 

 pected, at different times, as predominating in its 

 organization. E. W. Shufeldt. 



Fort Wingate, N. Mex., May 24. 



