THE ZOOLOGIST
No. 684.—June, 1898.
ON THE FIRST PRIMARY IN CERTAIN PASSERINE BIRDS.
By Arthur Gardiner Butler, Ph.D., and Arthur George Butler, M.B. Lond.
In 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.[1]
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."
- ↑ He included the Ploceine Finches, the Tanagers, and the Larks.
