608 abstracts: ornithology 



key to North American species follows in which every distinguishing 

 characteristic is illustrated in accompanying plate and text figures. A 

 brief botanical description and statement of geographical distribution 

 is given for each species. On account of the large number of trees 

 which are mentioned in botanical literature under the name Abies, 

 an index of nomenclature is included in which the name now used by 

 the Forest Service is followed by its most commonly accepted English 

 equivalent. 



The paper is concluded with a brief bibliography. W. H. L. 



ORNITHOLOGY. — A monograph of the genus Chordeiles Swainson, 

 type of a new family of goatsuckers. Harry C. Oberholser. 

 Bulletin of the United States National Museum, 86. Pp. viii + 

 123, pis. 1-6. 1914. 



The genus Chordeiles is of South American origin, though at present 

 occupying large areas in Central and North America. It has com- 

 monly been placed in the family Caprimulgidae, but its schizognathous 

 palate and other characters, chiefly osteological, show that it should 

 be separated as a new family, Chordeilidae. With it should be asso- 

 ciated the genera Nannochordeiles and Nyctiprogne, also possibly 

 Lurocalis and Podager. Incidentally, the monotypic genus Antro- 

 stomus (type, Antrostomus carolinensis) is, as shown by its cranial and 

 other characters, very distinct from the Old World Caprimulgus, and 

 also from the American whip-poor-wills, which latter should con- 

 stitute a new genus Setochalcis (type, Caprimulgus vociferus Wilson) . 



The members of the genus Chordeiles are remarkable among other 

 things for their great individual variation, amounting in some cases 

 to distinct color phases, and to very considerable external structural 

 differences. The genus comprises three specific groups — Chordeiles 

 virginianus, Chordeiles acutipennis, and Chordeiles rupestris. The first 

 mentioned is divisible into nine geographic races, i.e.: C. v. virginianus, 

 from eastern and northwestern North America; C. v. hesperis. Pacific 

 Coast and northwestern United States; C. v. sennetti, northern Great 

 Plains; C. v. howelli, subsp. nov., central portion of western United 

 States; C. v. henryi, Arizona and New Mexico; C. v. aserriensis, subsp. 

 restit., southern Texas; C. v. chapmani, Florida and Gulf coast to 

 eastern Texas; C. v. vicinus, Bahama Islands; and C. v. minor. Greater 

 Antilles. Of Chordeiles acutipennis there are five subspecies: C. a. 

 acutipennis, from central and northern South America; C. a. exilis 

 (= pruinosus Auct.), coast of Peru and northern Chile; C. a. micro- 



