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DR. R. W. SIIUFELDt's MORPHOLOGICAL 



previous to my quoting them*, and at the time I had not 

 had an opportunity of personally examining the skeleton o£ a 

 Trogon. In the present paj^er, however, the case will, in this 

 respect, be diflerent ; for, thanks to the kindness of Dr. P. L. 

 Sclater, I have been enabled to study in this connection the 

 skeletons of two different species of Trogon, which he has 

 obligingly lent me for the purpose. Eor other material I am 

 under obligations to a number of friends, to whom I here desire 

 to express my sincere thanks ; and I believe it will be found 

 that in the proper column of the Table below I make due 

 acknowledgments, by entering the names of the several donors 

 opposite the specimens they have been so good as to send me. 

 Indeed, had it not been for their kind and ready assistance, it 

 would have been impossible for me to have completed the pre- 

 sent work. Such material as 1 have been enabled to collect 

 myself is also set forth in the Table in question. My thanks 

 are further due to the Editors of ' The Auk ' and of ' Forest 

 and Stream,' for kindly inserting for me requests for specimens 

 of birds in alcohol to be used in the present connection. 



Grlancing over this list of material, it will be observed that, so 

 far as the ordinary forms of the American Oaprimulgine birds 

 are concerned, it admits of giving a full account of their structure. 

 The skeleton in these also may be conveniently compared with 

 the skeleton in the two species of Trogons likewise represented ; 

 and these latter with other types presented in the Table, as well 

 as with such a skeleton as is presented in Geococcyx cali- 

 fornianus, which I have elsewhere studied (Journ. Anat. and 

 Phys. Loud. vol. xx. 1886, pp. 2M-266) and published an 

 account of its characters. 



Similarly, we find the North- American Cvpseli very well- 

 represented, the only important form not found among my mate- 

 rial being Cypseloides oiiger, and all my efforts to secure specimens 

 in alcohol of this interesting Swift have utterly failed f. In my 

 first contribution to the anatomy of these birds (P. Z. S. 1885, 

 p. 886), I advanced the opinion that they were but profoundly 

 modified Swallows, and should not be grouped with the Trochili 

 in our classification of birds. We now have the opportunity 



* Forbes, W. A., "Note on the Structure of the Palate in the Trogons 

 {Trogoniday P.Z.S. 1881, p. 83G. 



t I have since received alcoholic specimens of this form from my friend 

 Prof. A. Newton, F.E.S., who kindly procured tliem from Jamaica for me. 



