404 JIK. K. DEGEN ON ECDYSIS. 



two quills, nunu'ly VI. & Yll. Naturally, then, this would restore to the distal 

 j^roup the number of remigcs allotted to them in my former diagram. And, in 

 continuing this process of borrowing one reniex from group to group backwards 

 consistently, it certainly would have the advantage of bringing us in positive accord 

 with the results arrived at in the compilation of my former diagram, namely by ending 

 with secondary remex VIII. ; thus leaving us with rcmiges IX. -X. to be disposed of 

 as " rcmiges cubitalis veri." 



But against the inclusion of cubital VIII. in the middle group is seen the -perfect 

 constancy with which the latter remex begins the moult first in all the specimens, to be 

 followed in turn aud with equal constancy by secondary remex IX. It is not till 

 much later in the moultiug-season that in Passerine species remex VII. begins its 

 renewal, in fact not before VIII., IX., & X. are all nearly completely renewed. 



The fortunate acquisition of the two wings of a Moor-hen {GalUnula cldoropus) in 

 just such a stage of moult, as well as numerous material of Parrots in the same 

 condition (notwithstanding the fact that the former belongs to a eutaxic family of 

 birds), shows that in these birds (a fact in which they all agree) it invariably is the 

 cubital remex IX. with which their moult begins first on this portion of the wing. 



Moreover, an examination by Pycraft (39) fig. 4, pi. 14, of the wing of a young 

 fowl, convinces me that the " eutaxy " of the Gallinee — and probably all those more 

 primitive groups of birds which compose Mr. Pycraft's list of eutaxic forms (see p. 248, 

 I. G.) — is morphologically not the same " eutaxy " as that of the Passeres. 



The constancy with which in diastataxic wings moult sets in first with cubital 

 remex IX., by commencing the renewal in an inward direction of the proximal 

 Group I., against the commencement in the latter with remex VIII. of the Passerine 

 mode, legitimately points to the assumption that these two quills are morphologically 

 identical with one another, and that the cubital remex V., where it is present in such 

 eutaxic forms as the Gallinse and similar birds other than Passerinse, is the original 

 remex V. still retained by them. 



The following scheme will further express my meaning : — 



Scheme for right side of Wings. 



Group II. Group III. Group I. 



_-A ^ A^_ 



Galline eutaxy (()) 123456 7 8 9 -x. 



Numerical figures of cubital 

 romiges 



I (Carp. 11.) I. II. III. lY. y. YI. YII. Till. IX. 



Passerine eutaxij (0) 1 2 3 4 .5 6 7 8 9 10(11) 



~Y- v w 



Group II. Group III. Group I. 



