ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB, 
63 
tion, go for very little. One of the two little feathers of 9-primaried 
birds, as we have seen, certainly corresponds to the spurious or fully 
developed first primary of 10-primaried ; why may not the other be 
also a primary? It is not conclusive argument to the contrary 
that the feather in question is never fully developed ; nor is it an 
insuperable objection that the function of the feather is certainly 
that of a covert. The strongest argument against the view here 
very guardedly discussed is, that if the feather be not a covert, 
then the first fully developed primary has none, while the rest 
have one apiece. While I am far from committing myself to the 
implied proposition that an oscine bird possesses eleven primaries, 
I think it proper to bring the case forward as one which will bear 
looking into, and which will probably remain open until the exact 
relations between a remex and a tectrix are ascertained. Should it 
be determined that an Oscine may show traces of two suppressed pri- 
maries, instead of only the single one which certainly persists in 
10-primaried birds, the fact would tend to increase the value already 
justly set upon number of remiges as a taxonomic factor. It is 
generally admitted, and it seems to be unquestionable, that here, as 
in numberless other cases, reduction in number and specialization 
in function of parts indicates a higher grade of organization ; for 
only the lower birds show the higher aggregate number of remiges, 
and in none but the higher are the developed primaries ever reduced 
to nine. A gradual reduction in the number of remiges seems to 
be directly correlated with that progressive consolidation or com- 
paction of the distal osseous segments of the fore limb which reaches 
its climax in the wing of the most highly organized birds of the 
present epoch. 
THE YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER {SPHYRAPIGUS 
VARIUS). 
BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
The Mexicans call the Woodpeckers “ Carpenteros,” and most ap- 
propriately, for the chisel-shaped bill not only serves the bird in 
procuring its daily food, but is also the sole agent employed in 
digging the wonderful cavities in which the eggs are laid aiid the 
young reared. It is probable that, putting aside the universal ene- 
