abstracts: ornithology 589 



ORNITHOLOGY. — Description of a new genus of Anatidae. Harry 



C. Oberholser. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 30: 119-120. 



May 23, 1917. 



The rare Laysan teal, Anas laysanensis of authors, interesting on 



account of its limited island distribution, is found to differ decidedly 



in structural characters from any genus of ducks hitherto recognized, 



and is here made the type of a new genus, Horizonetta. H. C. 0. 



ORNITHOLOGY.— Notes on North American birds. I. Harry C. 

 Oberholser. The Auk 34: 191-196. April, 1917. 

 This is the first of a series of articles on the status, relationships, 

 and nomenclature of various North American birds. The present 

 installment treats of seven species and subspecies. The specimen of 

 Cepphus snowi Stejneger, said to have been taken on the Kenai River, 

 Alaska, proves to be, owing to the possibility of transposition of labels, 

 very doubtfully North American. A specimen of the South American 

 Dendrocygna viduata killed in New Jersey, and recorded as an addition 

 to the North American fauna, seems undoubtedly to be a bird that has 

 escaped from captivity, and as such not entitled to a place in our fauna. 

 The status of the forms of Anas rubripes is discussed and the conclusion 

 reached that both Anas rubripes rubripes and Anas rubripes tristis 

 are recognizable subspecies, the former breeding from northern Ungava 

 to Hudson Bay, and the latter from Maryland and Newfoundland 

 west to Wisconsin. The form of California partridge inhabiting Santa 

 Catalina Island, California, originally described as Lophortyx catalinensis 

 Grinnell, is reinstated as a subspecies of Lophortyx californica. The 

 Florida race of Myiarchus crinitus and the American robin breeding 

 on the Pacific Coast from the northwestern United States to southern 

 Alaska are both considered tenable subspecies and revived to stand as 

 Myiarchus crinitus residuus Howe and Planesticus migratorius caurinus 

 Grinnell, respectively. H. C. 0. 



ORNITHOLOGY. — Description of a new Sialia from Mexico. Harry 

 C. Oberholser. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 30: 27-28. Febru- 

 ary 21, 1917. 

 A new and unexpected form of the eastern bluebird is here described 

 as Sialia sialis episcopus, from specimens taken at Santa Engracia, 

 Tamaulipas, northeastern Mexico. It presents a combination of the 

 characters of Sialia sialis sialis and Sialia sialis fulva. It proves to 

 be also the breeding bluebird of the lower Rio Grande region in Texas. 



H. C. 0. 



