STUDIES OF THE MACROOHIRES. 



299 



Studies of the Macrocliires, Morpliological and otherwise, with 

 the view of indicating their Eelationships and defining 

 their several Positions in the System. By E. W. Skufeldt, 

 M.D., O.M.Z.S., Captain, Medical Corps, U.S. Army. 

 (Communicated by "W". K. Parker, F.E.S., E.L.S.) 



[Eead 19th January, 1888.] 



(Plates XVII.-XXIV.) 



It may be remembered by those who are interested in the 

 structure and classification of birds that I published, in the 

 * Proceedings' of the Zoological Society for 1885 (pp. 886-915), 

 a memoir entitled " A Contribution to the Comparative Osteology 

 of the TrochilidcB, CaprimidgidcB, and CypselidcE.''^ That memoir 

 professed to be but little more than a mere introduction to 

 a subject which I will here enter upon more fully, although the 

 opinions there set forth are, in the main, substantially those that 

 I still hold, at least in the case of the Trochilidcd and Cajpri- 

 mulgidce. Since the date of that paper, however, I have never 

 ceased in my endeavour to gather together the necessary material 

 for this, my second contribution on the subject ; and, as will be 

 seen by the list of specimens in the subjoined Table, these efforts 

 have met with a very fair measure of success. 



In the conclusions at the close of my former paper I contended 

 that all the existing Caprimulgine birds of the world's avifauna 

 should be grouped in one order, the Caprimulgi. In this 

 group, no doubt, would fall Nyctibiiis and ^teatornis^ and very 

 probably Podargus and Fsalurus. Further, I proposed that the 

 Humming-birds should constitute another order, to be known as 

 the Trochili. I made no final determinations in regard to the 

 Swifts, beyond that they should be separated from the Trochili ; 

 but these birds will be carefully studied in the present memoir, 

 and my opinions in regard to them stated in the conclusions 

 which close it. 



Finally, I had something to say about certain apparent resem- 

 blances between the bones in the roof of the mouth of a Trogon 

 and the corresponding structures in a Humming-bird. But my 

 remarks were only drawn from a paper by W. A. Forbes published 

 in the ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society three or four years 



LINN. JOURN. — ZOOLOGY, VOL. XX. 24 



