STUDIES or THE MACROCHIRES. 
30i 
of ascertaining how this opinion will stand the test ot more 
extensive researches into their structure, with the aid ot a far 
better supply of material than 1 was enabled to handle upon 
the first occasion. 
The Table also presents a very fine collection of skeletons 
and specimens in alcohol of the Trochili ; and the structure of 
these, as I say, will in the following pages be thoroughly com- 
pared with the corresponding structures to be found in the Swifts. 
It is further my intention to compare the Swifts thoroughly 
with the Swallows ; and to this end I find that I have examples 
of every genus of the latter birds, as they are represented in the 
Nor th- American or, rather, United States avifauna. Up to the 
present time my efforts to secure specimens in alcohol of such 
a form as Hemiprogne zonaris have not succeeded ; hut Mr. C. B. 
Cory has kindly written for me to some collectors in the West 
Indies, and I have taken the liberty to apply for some of these 
birds to the governmental authorities in Jamaica. Sufficient 
time has scarcely elapsed for me to have received replies, but I 
am under the impression that when this type comes to be com- 
pared with more typical Swifts, some light will be thrown upon 
the present subject. , 
Einally, it is my intention in this memoir to review some of 
the structural and other characteristics of the Passeres ; not that 
the majority of the ordinary ones are not already known to us, 
but rather to have them arranged systematically at hand, for 
comparison in the present connection. I have chosen for this 
purpose a specimen of Ampelis garrulus, being influenced in my 
choice more particularly by the fact that, although it happens 
to be Passerine, it is not strictly and typically so : moreover, 
some ornithologists apparently recognize in it certain Swallow- 
like characters, more especially those which have a certain resem- 
blance to such a bird as Progne subis, which it appears to approach 
in the form of the bill. Others, and much earlier authorities, have 
entertained the notion that the Waxwings belong rather to the 
Clamatores , being probably related to the Tyrannidce , and should 
be placed near them. So that, on the whole, I trust that, in addi- 
tion to meeting other ends in view, a glance at the structure of 
this strictly American representative of the Ampelince will not 
come amiss. 
The order in which I propose to present the material to be 
examined will be : — first, a sketch of the morphology of 
24* 
