86 feecent Literature. [ZOE 
American Naturalist, xxv, p. 157.. From a study of the osteol- 
ogical character of nearly all the genera of United States Colum- 
bidz the author divides the family Columbidz of the sub-order of 
American Pigeons (Peristere) into two sub-families, Columbine 
and Starnenading; the former containing the genera Columba, 
Ectopistes, Engyptila, Zenaidura, Zenaida, Melopelia, Columbi- 
gallina, Scardafella and Geotrygon, and the latter containing the 
genus Sfarnenas. This arrangement differs from Coues, who 
divided the family Columéide into three subfamilies, viz: Colwm- 
bine, Zenaidine and Starnenading. The details by which these 
conclusions were arrived at are not given in the present paper. 
Wend Be 
The forest and Stream of March 19 has an article on Doves 
Nesting in Trees, by S. A. Batt. No locality is given where the 
observations were made but it is undoubtedly eastern, where ground 
building may be the common practice with the mourning dove 
( Zenaidura macroura), but on the western coast nests are oftener 
found in trees than upon the ground and in California it is a rule to 
which I recall no exception in scores of instances in my experience, 
although cases have been reported by others. The most interesting 
part of the article is the recounting of how he persecuted twenty- 
four nests belonging to fourteen species in order to ascertain to 
what extent the labor of constructing was lost by failure of the 
birds to hatch and rear their young. He says: ‘‘ Here weretwenty-. 
four nests over which I constituted myself guardian, and which 7 
visited every day or every other day.” [Not italicized in original. ] 
After such a confession it is a matter of surprise that so many as six 
species (nine nests) succeeded in hatching part or all their eggs. 
Had he been more zealous he might have accomplished the break- 
ing up of the domestic arrangements of every pair in his vicinity. 
Following this he bitterly complains of the investigations of scien- 
tists with but an allusion to the destruction of birds for millinery 
purposes. a ee 
A notable departure from terrestrial to arboreal nest-building 
could be cited in a number of instances where the California part- 
ridge has built in trees, upon hay-cocks in the field, upon covered — 
hay stacks and once in a vine-covered trellis (Bull. Cal. Acad., ii, 
452). Wok SO , 
The colored plates in the April issue of the Ibis are of Galeopsar 
