STUDIES OF THE MACROCHrilES. 



301 



of ascertaining how tliis opinion will stand the test of more 

 extensive researches into their structure, with the aid of a tar 

 better supply of material than I was enabled to handle upon 

 the first occasion. 



The Table also presents a very fine collection of skeletons 

 and specimens in alcohol of the Trochili ; and the structure of 

 these, as I say, will in the following pages be thoroughly com- 

 pared with the corresponding structures to be found in the Swifts. 



It is further my intention to compare the Swifts thoroughly 

 with the Swallows ; and to this end I find that I have examples 

 of every genus of the latter birds, as they are represented in the 

 North-American or, rather, United States avifauna. Up to the 

 present time my efi'orts to secure specimens in alcohol of such 

 a form as Hemiprogne zonaris have not succeeded ; but Mr. C. B. 

 Cory has kindly written for me to some collectors in the West 

 Indies, and I have taken the liberty to apply for some of these 

 birds to the governmental authorities in Jamaica. Sufi&cient 

 time has scarcely elapsed for me to have received replies, but I 

 am under the impression that when this type comes to be com- 

 pared with more typical Swifts, some light will be thrown upon 

 the present subject. ^ 



Finally, it is my intention in this memoir to review some of 

 the structural and other characteristics of the Passer es ; not that 

 the majority of the ordinary ones are not already known to us, 

 but rather to have them arranged systematically at hand, for 

 comparison in the present connection. I have chosen for this 

 purpose a specimen of Ampelis garmlus, being influenced in my 

 choice more particularly by the fact that, although it happens 

 to be Passerine, it is not strictly and typically so : moreover, 

 some ornithologists apparently recognize in it certain Swallow- 

 like characters, more especially those which have a certain resem- 

 blance to such a bird as Progne suhis, which it appears to approach 

 in the form of the bill. Others, and much earlier authorities, have 

 entertained the notion that the Waxwings belong rather to the 

 Clamatores, being probably related to the TgrannidcB, and should 

 be placed near them. So that, on the whole, I trust that, in addi- 

 tion to meeting other ends in view, a glance at the structure of 

 this strictly American representative of the Ampelince will not 

 come amiss. 



The order in which I propose to present the material to be 

 examined will be : — first, a sketch of the morphology of 



24i* 



