STUDIES OP THE MACROCHIRES. 
383 
fig. 32, which gives its external characters sufficiently well to obviate 
the necessity of a special description. Among the most interest- 
ing of these features is the wonderfully short beak in this 
nestling, as compared with the long slender one of the adult. 
Supplementary Notes on Cypseloides niger and Nyctidromus 
albicollis, var. Merrilli. 
As tin’s paper is passing through the press I am able to add a 
few words upon the structure of these two birds — the Black Swift 
and Merrill’s Parauque. This affords me particular satisfaction, 
for inasmuch as every species of American (i. e. United States) 
Swallow (seven in all) is anatomically described in this memoir, 
I can add that I have similarly examined and compared every 
species of Caprimulgine (except A. carolinensis) and Cypseline 
bird. I am indebted to my friend Professor Newton, E.B.S., of 
Cambridge, for the specimens of Cypseloides , which were collected 
for him on my behalf in Jamaica by Mr, G. A. Waddington. 
The specimens of Nyctidromus are from Texas, where they were 
procured on the lower Bio Grande by two of my collectors. 
Externally Cypseloides niger has a more Swallow-like appear- 
ance than either Micropus or Chcetura. This no doubt is due to 
the structure of the tail and feet, which have a more passerine 
appearance than is seen in M. melanoleucus , and still more so 
than in C. pelagica or C. Vaucei. Nevertheless Cypseloides is a 
Swift, with the pterylography of the order as given above. It 
also exhibits the peculiar black pigmentation on the palmar 
aspects of its pinions, although the skin there is not quite so 
dark as in other North- American Cypseli. The tarsal and pedal 
integuments are skinny, but plainly show a scutellate definition. 
The hind toe is somewhat elevated, though distinctly posterior 
in position. In general form the plucked body presents the 
appearance of the nude body of a Chcetura rather than of Micro- 
pus, which is more compressed in shape. 
Myologically, this Swift agrees with others already described, 
the patagial muscles, the muscles of the thigh, and thorax being 
almost identical with those of C. pelagica. 
Upon opening the abdominal cavity we find that in these 
parts also Cypseloides agrees with all true Swifts. The stomach 
is notably large, and only overlapped by the lobes of the liver 
above, in all these respects differing widely from the corre- 
sponding organs in any existing Humming-bird. 
