136 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXXIV, 
a fresh specimen of M. subrufescens recently examined, I found a vestigial 
eleventh (outermost) primary 8.5 mm. long, firm but not stiff nor acute; 
the shortened tenth quill 57 mm. long. In an individual of M. lessoni the 
“remicle’’ was 8 mm. in length. In the same work (p. 441) the number of 
primaries in the Todidae is given as “9-10,” evidently taken from Gadow’s 
table in the Tierreich. J have examined all the species of the genus and find 
10 well developed primaries in each. 7 
Alula.— The most remarkable alula among the numerous birds inves- 
tigated is found in the curious Cuckoo, Tapera. . In this bird alone is the 
first alula quill about equal to the third,’ and the fifth much longer than 
the distance from its tip to the tip of the longest (second) feather. It is 
well known that in this bird the alula is unusually mobile and is used in 
display, being thrust out at an angle from the rest of the wing and across 
the breast. It is large and mobile also in other Cuckoos and in the 
Turacos. <A nestling Yellow-billed Cuckoo (Coccyzus americanus) once 
observed by the writer raised the alula most conspicuously when disturbed. 
Dromococcyx, the nearest relative of Tapera, shows only a slight approach to 
the peculiar alula of the latter. 
Psophia, the Trumpeter, is the only other genus examined in which the 
first alula quill is shorter than the second. In Tapera the quills are six 
(possibly only five) in number, five or six in Geococcyx, Centropus, Pavo and 
Psopha, six in Turacus. In many groups, as the Parrots and Hawks, there 
are only four feathers (all large and well defined in the two groups men- 
tioned), and many Woodpeckers (as Centurus and Dryobates) and small 
Oscines have but three, of which the third is small. 
It is stated that the Hummingbirds have but a single alula quill and that 
even this is sometimes wanting (Ridgway, Birds N. and M. poner. Pt. V, 
p. 299). My observations do not confirm this statement. In Patagona 
gigas the distal quill is a lanceolate feather 14 mm. in length; next to this 
is a fairly stiff though not quill-like feather 7 mm. long, then a third feather 
4mm. long. On carefully cutting out the pollex these three feathers (and 
possibly a fourth smaller one) are all found to grow from well above the 
basal end of the bone. It seems to me therefore that they are alula quills 
beyond a doubt. In several other Hummers examined (as Colibri and An- 
thracothorax) at least two feathers must be considered as belonging to the 
alula, the second one differing greatly in length and shape from the narrow 
linear first quill. 
Outermost Primary Covert.— A remarkable feature of the Trumpeter 
1In Chizorhis zonurus (Musophagide) also the first feather about equals the third. 
