Jlavipes , until we come to the really notable departure in this particular 
as found in the sternum of the Sandpiper which is the subject of this 
letter.* 
If you will kindly grant me a few more lines of your valuable space, I 
would like to add here a few supplemental notes in reference to the ptery- 
lograpliy of the genus Sphyrapicus. It will be remembered that in the 
April (1888) issue of ‘The Auk,’ I figured this character for a Woodpecker 
of that genus, and showed how the ‘saddle-tract’ resembled that pteryla 
in most Passeres. This was perfectly true for all the examples then at my 
command, but since then considerable more material has come under my 
observation, and in some individuals of Sphyrapicus v. nuc kalis, I find 
the pattern of the dorsal tracts in their pterylography, quite Picine in 
character, while several individuals prettily show intermediate steps ap- 
proaching the pattern of the specimen I figured in my former letter on 
this point, alluded to above. In a letter of mine published in ‘The Auk> 
in July, 1887, I showed how widely different in form the skulls of two birds 
of the same species might be, and 1 am now inclined to think that similar 
departures may occasionally be met with, where the pterylography may 
vary within certain limits for the same species. This would appear to be 
the case anyway in the Woodpecker about which I have been speaking. 
Very respectfully yours 
R. W. Siiufeldt. 
Fort Wingate , New Mexico , 
March 27, 1888. 
Auk, v, July, 1888. p. 330-331 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
can Ornitnhk^sts’ Union, died in Yokohama, Japan, where he-fias resided 
son of Thomas Pryer, a Lontkm solicitor. lie vyefit to China in 1871, but 
shortly after he settled in Japan, wk^re he engaged in mercantile business, 
devoting all his spare time to collecfrpg natural history objects and to 
studying the butterflies and birds of that couTkfry. 
* Since writing the above, I have received a valued commitnlcation from Mr. J. A. 
Allen, who has kindly looked into this matter for me, and reports that he finds the 
“two-notched’’ sternum in Totanus ochropus. I further learn that the sternum of this 
species is figured in Mr. Seebohm’s recent work on the ‘Charadriidas,’ but note with 
surprise that he makes so light of such an admirable generic character. This Con- 
vinces me more than ever, that the genus Rhyacophilus should be restored. — R. W. S. 
