1916] Chandler: Structure of Feathers 363 



nulum with 5 or 6 rather small hooklets, a series of short, curved 

 ventral cilia, more slender in Pteroclis, and in the inner vane a 

 series of small, spinelike dorsal cilia, the proximal ones of which 

 are especially modified only in Gmira. 



(4) Proximal barbules of inner vane of remiges with short, stout 

 base, moderate, pointed ventral teeth, and very slender pennulum, 

 shorter than base. 



(5) Proximals of outer vane, towards tip of shaft, with ventral 

 teeth becoming somewhat cilia-like in form, but a well-formed series 

 of ventral cilia never developed. 



(6) Structure of coverts, scapulars, and back feathers much 

 like that of outer vane of remex, except that hooklets of distal 

 barbules frequently have prongs or spines on the edge nearer the 

 tip of the barbule ; Pteroclis differs in having distal barbules of scapu- 

 lars with more specialized barbicels than in remex. 



(7) Breast feathers with similar structure, but pennula very 

 elongated, no flexules ever developed. 



(8) Down barbules in Pteroclis and Goura. moderately long, 

 without enlarged nodes; in all other species examined, the nodes 

 on proximal part of pennula very much swollen and expanded, 

 and very conspicuous, terminal portion of barb smoothly fila- 

 mentous, or with very minute prongs. 



11. Order CUCULIFORMES 



This order, composed of two suborders, the Cuculi, including 

 the cuckoos and plaintain-eaters, and the Psittaci, including the 

 parrots, forms a sort of connecting link between the ground birds 

 on the one hand, and the coraciifojm and passerine birds on the 

 other. Though the cuckoos and parrots are undoubtedly related, 

 their being grouped together in a separate order has been open to 

 considerable question. In the Cuculi the plumules are very sparse, 

 and restricted to the apteria, and the aftershaft is absent or rudi- 

 mentary in the Cuculidae, present in the Musophagidae ; in the 

 Psittaci the plumules are well developed over the whole body, and 

 the aftershaft is large, but with a short shaft and no distinct vanes. 



a) Coccyzus americanus 

 (1) Remex 



Calamus very small, and of smaller caliber than shaft. Shaft 

 at least as wide as deep at superior umbilicus, the widest part of 



