STUDIES OF THE MACROCHIRES. 
343 
pterylosis of the European bird as described by Nitzsch in a few 
well-marked particulars, and that both of these forms again differ 
in this particular from Chordeiles, to say nothing of the 
further departures which we find when we come to compare 
both Whip-poor-wills and Nightjars with such types as Nyctornis 
grandis and some others. 
No doubt further on we shall find that still more striking dif- 
ferences in pterylosis exist among the Caprimulgi and the Swifts 
and Humming-birds, to say nothing of what may be discovered 
between the last two groups in this regard. 
Before concluding what I have to say about this character 
in the Caprimulgi, it should be observed that although they 
differ among themselves in their pterylography, there is a certain 
general similarity of pattern in them all, the fundamental cha- 
racters of which are probably well exemplified in our Antro- 
stomus, as shown in figs. 9 and 10 ; while the departures from it 
may be easily made clear and apparent by the most superficial 
comparison of the several genera, as I have attempted to point 
them out or directed attention to those already described by 
Nitzsch. 
Observations on the Anatomy of Antrostomus apart f rom the 
Skeleton. 
( Comparisons ivitli Chordeiles.) 
Thanks to the labours of Huxley, Muller, Nitzsch, Macgillivray, 
Cuvier, Gfarrod, and Eorbes, and to an admirable paper by 
Mr. Frank E. Beddard, the present Prosector to the Zoological 
Society of London (P. Z. S. 1886, p. 147), much is already known 
of the anatomy of the most prominent representatives of the 
order Caprimulgi. 
In the present connection I shall attempt little more than a 
verification of the observations of these trustworthy writers by 
dissections of the material I have at hand, and thus fill in the 
scheme of my memoir. 
First, then, in the two specimens before me, with a scalpel I 
carefully remove the integument entirely from the head and 
down as far as the root of the neck. This done, the first 
thing that strikes us is that we can easily discern the form of the 
superior aspect of the brain even through the skull-walls, which 
have here been ^rendered more or less transparent by soaking 
