Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/273



many Passerine birds the first primary is exceedingly small as compared with the second; and in the case of the families Fringillidæ, Motacillidæ, and Hirundinidæ, this feather has been authoritatively declared to be absent. As far back as Jerdon's time, and probably at a much earlier date, it was stated that these groups of birds possessed only nine primary quillfeathers; indeed, Dr. Jerdon notes this as the character which distinguishes the Ploceinæ and Estreldinæ, which are admitted to have a small first primary, from the other groups which he includes in his extended family Fringillidæ.

In Seebohm's 'History of British Birds' we read:—"The Finches form a large group of birds which may at once be distinguished from all the other subfamilies of the Passeridæ by their combination of a stout conical bill with the entire absence of a first primary."

Of the Wagtails he says:—"The absence of a bastard or first primary sufficiently distinguishes them from the Thrushes, Tits, Crows, or Shrikes; and also from the Waxwings and Starlings, in which the bastard primary, though very small, is always present." Of the Hirundinidæ he says:—"They have no bastard primary." Zool. 4th ser. vol. II., June, 1898.