1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 87 



is described by Miss Richardson in the Proceedings of the Biological 



Society of Washington, and that four new species of the same genus 

 obtained by the same vessel are described almost at the same time 

 by Dr H. J. Hansen in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology at Harvard College. Of the high merit of all Dr Hansen's 

 zoological work mention has been too recently made to need further 

 comment on this occasion. In regard to Miss Richardson's excellent 

 contributions to our knowledge of the Isopoda, the suggestion may 

 be diffidently hazarded that researches reported in a collected and 

 connected form are now-a-days more acceptable than isolated 

 descriptions. 



Some Mexican Birds 



In a short paper published in the Proceedings of the Biological Society 

 of Washington (vol. xii., pp. 57-68; March 24, 1898) Mr E. W. 

 Nelson includes a critical examination of the long-nailed partridges, 

 for which Mr Ogilvie- Grant established the genus Dactylortyx 

 in 1893 (cf. Cat. Brit. Mus. xxii. p. 429). Mr Ogilvie Grant was 

 only able to include a single species, D. thoracicus, under this 

 genus; but Mr Nelson decides that Mr Ogilvie Grant united two 

 distinct species, of which he supplies the distinguishing characters. 

 He also describes two new species of long-nailed partridges, both 

 obtained in Mexico. Mr Nelson has discovered several other species 

 and sub-species of birds in Mexico. Of these, perhaps the most 

 surprising novelty is the Sinaloa Martin (Progne sinaloae), procured 

 upon the western slope of the Sierra Madre, between 2500 and 

 -±000 feet altitude. Oddly enough, this new species from North- 

 west Mexico is closely related to the pretty Caribbean Martin 

 (Progne dominicensis) which is peculiar to the West Indian Isles. 

 A good figure of the latter will be found in Sharpe and Wyatt's 

 " Monograph of the Hirundinidae," vol. ii. plate 91. 



The Black Kite 



Count Aebigoni Degli Oddi is one of the most enthusiastic of the 

 younger generation of Italian ornithologists, and has recently pub- 

 lished several excellent papers on the birds of his country. An 

 essay just issued by him, at Venice purports to be a notice of the 

 nesting of MUvus migrans in the province of Verona, but it is, in 

 point of fact, almost a life-history of the Black Kite. The author 

 supplies dates for the arrival and departure of this hawk in and 

 from Verona for a term of fifteen years, from which we learn that 

 it reaches its summer quarters in March, and leaves for Africa 

 again in August, or at the commencement of September. The 

 duties of incubation are performed by the female bird, and occupy 

 from eighteen to twenty days. The old kites are devoted to their 



