THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 39 



bia," (pp. 277-284, plate X). The colored plate that illustrates this contribu- 

 tion presents us with six admirable figures of the nestling plumages of 

 well-known American ducks. They are Charitonetta albeola, Aythya vallis- 

 neria^ Erismatura jamaiceusis, Glaucionetta islandica, Aythya collaris, and 

 Aythya affinis. Scarcely anything is said about these young birds in the text, 

 bat they tell fairly well their own story, and as far as they go they are ex- 

 tremely useful. The} 7 are all in the downy plumages, and it would be deci- 

 dedly interesting had we a similar plate, made later on, illustrating these same 

 six nestling ducks, by giving colored figures of them, showing what the first 

 feather plumages were. Investigations of this nature are precisely what I 

 would like to see undertaken in the cases of our entire United States ornis. 

 More than this — for it is the duty of our naturalists and morphologists to make 

 exhaustive researches upon the anatomy of bird-nestlings, carrying such inves- 

 tigations through all the stages, from the time of hatching to include the sub- 

 adult individuals. To do this it would not be necessary to include all the spe- 

 cies and subspecies we have in our avifauna, for in many groups and genera, 

 this would simply mean uunecess try duplication of labor, time, expense, and 

 facts. An exhaustive memoir on the morhpology of the various growth stages, 

 as above indicated, for a single characteristic species of certain groups would 

 be ample, and cover the ground. In some instances, however, several such 

 memoirs would have to be done within the limits of some of the natural groups; 

 in others we have but the one species in this country representing whole aggre- 

 gations of families in other parts of the world. As an example of this I may 

 mention our nearly exterminated Oaroliua paroquet ( Conicncs carolinensis) . 

 The nestling stages of a Grebe (sE. occidentalis) and a Loon ( U. miber) should 

 thus be worked out, as well as several members of the Alcce. One good gull 

 would auswer for the Lougipeimes (Larus argentatus), while the Black Skim- 

 mer (Rhynchops nigra) should be most exhaustively handled. Mind, I am 

 only referring now to the anatomy — the plumage phases from the very earliest 

 stages, up to include the subadult stage, must be studied in all the periods of 

 the bird's growtli at the times of changes taking place. These, as I say, must- 

 be shown by faithful colored figures. 



We want the developmental anatomy of nestling Albatrosses, {D. albatrits) ; 

 of a fulmar (E. glacialis) ; of a petrel (Procellaria pclagica); and passing 

 to the Steganopodes, of a tropic bird (P. flavirostris) ; a gauuet (S. bassana) ; 

 a cormorant, {P. car bo) ; a pelican, (P. fusacs); aud of the man-o'-war bird, 

 {Eregata). Kitchen Parker worked out and published the various stages for 

 the duck tribes (A/iseres), and many others, but we need most emphatic tlly a 

 complete memoir, morphological in its widest sense, of the Flamingo (P. 

 ruber). And, so we might go on through the other families and some of the: 

 minor groups. Of course, among the immense host of Passeres, the labor,, 

 apart from the study of nestling plumages, external characters and contours* 

 would not be as extensive as it would appear on first sight. A typical, or I 

 had better say, a characteristic thrush, a tit, a nuthatch, a wren, a warbler, a 

 shrike, a swallow, a sparrow, an icterine form, and a flycatcher, would go a 

 long ways towards throwing light upon the subject, in so far as the multitu- 

 dinous so-called "perchers" are concerned. Every form thus worked out, how- 

 ever, lightens it for all the others, rendering the necessity for exhaustive work 

 less and less necessary, as representative after representative of the groups are 

 thus dealt with and disposed of in their turn. For instance, if w T e know the 

 structure of the nestling of such a species as the crow, we may fairly presume, 

 that, at the corresponding stages of growth, it would be nearly the same in a 



