632 DR. p. CHALMERS MITCHELL ON THE [l)ec. 17, 



plaGed distally and bound closely to them. At the carpal angle of 

 the wing, the transition to the secondaries is made and the carpal 

 remex with the carpal covert lie in this region. Since Degen (2) 

 drew attention to these feathers a good deal has been wTitten 

 about them by various authors, and when I wrote my paper on the 

 Columbidse (8) I was unacquainted with Degen's work. I urged 

 the view, against later writers, that the carpal covert and remex 

 belonged morphologically to the secondaries and not to the 

 primaries. I am glad to find that this was Degen's view. In the 

 Ballidse the carpal covert, crosses the carpal remex precisely as the 

 :major.eoYei"ts cross the secondary quills, and the remex is frequently 

 ■tied to the first large secondary by a plica of membrane, similar fo 

 Jhat which I described in the Columbidae. I think that there can 

 be. no doubt as to the homology of these feathers, and that 

 morphologically the diastataxic gap should be counted as coming 

 after the fifth secondary. The carpal remex and covert are in 

 process of reduction. In the Eallidae this has not proceeded far, 

 ■and the carpal remex, in most cases, as in the figure, lies very 

 close to the first primary, so that it appears rather like a proximall)'' 

 placed, primary major covert. The four large distal quills of. the 

 secondary series are crossed by their major coverts : then comes 

 the wide diastataxic gap (^e) occupied by a feather in series with thf. 

 major coverts, and then follow the more proximal secondaries with 

 their coverts in even series. The transverse rows of minor coverts 

 are not well marked in the Eallidse ; the coverts just above the 

 ■jnajor coverts. are large, and, as frequently happens in bix'ds, lowing 

 to the large size of the quilK.and major coverts these third-series 

 feathers have been pushed forwards so that they appear to lie in 

 between the rows ; their true position will be at once plain if one 

 imagine the quills and major coverts reduced to the same size as 

 those of this third series. In the figures, which naturally are 

 somewhat diagrammatic, these feathers are represented rather 

 more nearly in their morphological position than in their actual 

 position. They are the feathers that I termed third-series feathers 

 in my paper on the Columbidse. The higher members of the 

 transverse rows are fairly well marked in some Rails ; in others 

 they are reduced to small, almost downy feathers without con- 

 spicuous transverse or horizontal arrangement. 



GruidcB. — The Gruinse and Aramin;© are diastataxic, and, except 

 that the transverse rows are rather better marked in Aramus, there 

 is no point of importance to distinguish the condition of the wing 

 in these from the condition in the Eails. As in some Hails, the 

 carpal remex is not so close to the first primary as in Ballus longi- 

 rostris. The Psophiiuse (text-fig. 71, Psophia ohscura) display the 

 eutaxic arrangement of the wing-feathering. The primary quills 

 with their distally placed major coverts meet the secondary quills, 

 which, as usual, are crossed by their major coverts, at the , carpal 

 angle. The secondary quills occur in . even series, there being no 

 trace of the diastataxic gap. The transverse rows are fairly well 

 inarked, the third-series feathers, as in tlie dia"stataxic forms, being 



