General Azotes. \2*J 
or cores are internally connected with the superficial fascia of the toes and 
seem to straddle the flexor tendons running below. 
On noting the structural difference, the cause or function of these 
papillae at once becomes a point of interest. Why have these two pads 
been modified into long papillae (.12 inch in a dried specimen), and provi- 
ded with a solid core ? Now the foot of Accipiter is so constructed that 
the first toe opposes the second toe, and their claws move in nearly par- 
allel arcs. This is riot the case with the third and fourth toes, which are 
longer and not opposable to one another. Thus the claws can be op- 
posed to nothing except the middle portions of the toes to which they 
belong. But when the claw is thus flexed a small space well adapted for 
grasping twigs and feathers is formed by the papillae, the penultimate 
phalanx and the claw, the point projecting beyond resembling the feet of 
certain Crustacea and lice. Hence the function of the papillae would 
seem to be to aid the third and fourth claws in grasping small objects, and 
it is an interesting point to notice that the foot of. Accipiter fuscus is 
thus drawn in North American Birds, by Baird, Brewer and Ridgway. 
How far the same considerations hold in other species I cannot say, but 
as mentioned above, allied forms seem to possess the character to a less 
degree. — J. Amory Jeffries, Boston , Mass. 
Supplementary Notes on two Texas Birds. — In a recent paper* 
on a collection of birds made in southwestern Texas, I referred a series of 
Hylocichla unalascce to the restricted form, with the remark that several 
specimens closely approached var. audubom. Upon reading the article, 
an esteemed correspondent wrote me that one of these aberrant examples, 
which had passed into his hands, appeared to him to be true auduboni. 
In this opinion, after a reexamination of the specimen, I concur. The 
bird in question has a wing of 3.82 inches, which, though decidedly under 
the average of auduboni , is more than should be allowed unalascce proper, f 
Here, then, is another species, besides those previously cited, which is 
represented by two distinct varieties in the tract of country explored. 
. The single specimen of Coturniculus passerinus taken in the same lo- 
cality represents the western variet y perpallidus, under which, by an over- 
sight, it was not included. — Nathan Clifford Brown, Portland , Me. 
* This Bulletin, Vol. VII, p. 33. 
f For an excellent review of the races of H. unalascce , by Mr. H. W. Henshaw, see 
this Bulletin, Vol. IV, p. 134. Several errors, perhaps typographical, are apparent in 
the tables of measurements given in this paper. For example, the bill of var. pallasi 
is said to average .53 inch, whereas the largest specimen of that form is afterwards 
credited with a bill of only .51. Again, var. nanus (i. e., unalascce) does not appear from 
the table of extreme measurements to have been found with a smaller bill than .49, though 
it had previously been said to average .48. The difference in length of bill exhibited 
by the three races of this species is almost microscopic. A much more tangible 
character, not mentioned by Mr. Henshaw, lies in the disproportionate slenderness of 
the bill of the western varieties. In a rather large (wing 3.67) example of unalascce 
before me, the bill measured across the base of the culmen is but .20 wide, while in a 
specimen of var .pallasi of the same size it is .25 wide. 
