Sphyrapicus varius. ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 63 tion, go for very little. One of the two little feathers of 9-primaried birds, as we have seen, certainly corresponds to the spurious or fully developed first primary of 10-primaried; why may not the other be also a primary? It is not conclusive argument to the contrary that the feather in question is never fully developed; nor is it an insuperable objection that the function of the feather is certainly that of a covert. The strongest argument against the view here very guardedly discussed is, that if the feather be not a covert, then the first fully developed primary has none, while the rest have one apiece. While I am far from committing myself to the implied proposition that an oscine bird possesses eleven primaries, I think it proper to bring the case forward as one which will bear looking into, and which will probably remain open until the exact relations between a remex and a tectrix are ascertained. Should it be determined that an Oscine may show traces of two suppressed pri- maries, instead of only the single one which certainly persists in 10-primaried birds, the fact would tend to increase the value already justly set upon number of remiges as a taxonomic factor. It is generally admitted, and it seems to be unquestionable, that here, as in numberless other cases, reduction in number and specialization in function of parts indicates a higher grade of organization; for only the lower birds show the higher aggregate number of remiges, and in none but the higher are the developed primaries ever reduced to nine. A gradual reduction in the number of remiges seems to be directly correlated with that progressive consolidation or com- paction of the distal osseous segments of the fore limb which reaches its climax in the wing of the most highly organized birds of the present epoch. THE YELLOW-BELLIED WOODPECKER (SPHYRAPICUS VARIUS). BY WILLIAM BREWSTER. The Mexicans call the Woodpeckers “Carpenteros,” and most ap- propriately, for the chisel-shaped bill not only serves the bird in procuring its daily food, but is also the sole agent employed in digging the wonderful cavities in which the eggs are laid and the young reared. It is probable that, putting aside the universal ene-