1896
another instance of the specialization of the Swifts along various lines, and also as showing the structural variation among different members of the group. In Macropteryx the deltoid is well-developed and arises from two heads as in the Passeres. In Cypseloides, Micropus, Collocalia, and Tachornis, the deltoid is single and reduced in size, being proportionally smallest in Tachornis. Finally, as stated above, the deltoid is quite absent in Chætura pelagica, this being a step beyond what is found among the Hummingbirds, where the deltoid is present though small. It would be interesting to know if other members of the genus Chætura lack the deltoid, and also what is the condition of this muscle in Hemiprocne. Dr. Shufeldt's figure of the wing muscles of Chætura (Linn. Soc. Journ. Zool. XX, pl. 22, fig. 29) shows that he too found this muscle absent, although nothing is said about it in the text.
I would be extremely grateful to any one for alcoholic specimens of Hemiprocne or any species of Chætura save pelagica.—F. A. Lucas, Washington, D. C.
The Scissor-tailed Flycatcher in Virginia and Maryland.—My friend, Mr. P. Henry Azlett, of Azlett, King William County, Virginia, recently sent me for identification an adult specimen of this bird (Milvulus forficatus) which was shot by a farmer near that place on August 31, 1895. The bird is in poor, half moulted condition. This is, I believe, the fourth record of this bird for Virginia, and it is of course possible that some or all were escaped cage birds. The late Mr. O. N. Bryan of Bryan's Point, Maryland, on the Potomac River just below Washington, once told me that in August of a year about the close of the war while he was in a deep ravine near his home, called Johnson's Gully, he was overtaken by a severe storm, and saw one of these birds which had evidently sought the seclusion of the same place for shelter.—William Palmer, Washington, D. C.
The Raven in Illinois.—I wish to place on record the capture of a specimen of Corvus corax principalis, at Mendosia, Ill., Oct. 23, 1892. I was at that time making a collection of birds for the State, and was living with the crew of the United States Fish Commission. The bird had been seen for a week or more previous to this time, flying about Lake Mendosia, a body of water opening into the Illinois River. The lake is seven miles long and three quarters of a mile wide. A number of attempts had been made by market shooters to obtain the bird for me, but they could not get within gunshot, and so were unsuccessful.
One day, however, as I was passing through a herd of cattle, the bird flew very low and I obtained it with a charge of number five shot. The specimen, a female, had been feeding upon carrion, and the odor from the body was as disagreeable as that from Cathartes aura. The plumage is exceptionally fine; the body is deep blue black; from the secondaries to the primary coverts, the color is rich brownish bronze. The following
