408 abstracts: ornithology 



vulgaris in the trees of the Mall, in the city of Washington, whither also 

 1000 to 5000 individuals of Quiscalus quiscula quiscula and for a few 

 weeks several thousand purple martins, Progne subis suhis, resorted. 



H. C. 0. 



ORNITHOLOGY.— Mw^awrfa ornithologica. IT. Harry C. Oberhol- 

 SER. Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 30: 125-126. 1917. 

 In this, the second, paper on the nomenclatural status of certain 

 birds the following changes are indicated : The parrot commonly known 

 as Loriculus inducus (Gmelin) must hereafter be called Loriculus asiati- 

 cus) (Latham); Polytelis harrabandii (Swainson) must be known as 

 Polytelis swainsonii (Desmarest) ; Triclaria cyanogastris (Vieillot) must 

 hereafter be called Triclaria malachitacea (Spix) ; Pyrrhura bittata (Shaw) 

 is changed to Pyrrhura frontalis (Vieillot) ; Nasiterna pygniea (Quoi and 

 Gaimard) is renamed Micropsitta chloroxantha Oberholser; and Mala- 

 coptila torquata (Wagler) is changed to Malacoptila strata (Spix) . 



H. C. O. 



ORNITHOLOGY. — Descriptions of two new birds from Haiti. Charles 

 W.Richmond. Smiths. Misc. Coll. 68: No. 7, 1-3. 1917. 

 In this paper there are described two more of Dr. W. L. Abbott's re- 

 markable ornithological discoveries on the island of Santo Domingo. 

 The first and most interesting is a new Nyctibus, a genus of big goat- 

 suckers not hitherto recorded from the island of Santo Domingo, and 

 here described as Nyctibus griseus abbotti, after its discoverer, the well- 

 known traveller and naturalist. The single specimen was obtained at 

 Port de Pimente, northwestern Haiti. The other new bird is Vireo 

 crassirostris tortugae, from Tortuga Island, off the northwestern coast 

 of Haiti. Harry C. Oberholser. 



ORNITHOLOGY. — The relationships of the fossil bird (Palaeochenoides 

 mioceanus). Alexander Wetmore. Journ. Geol. 25:555-557. 

 1917. 

 The bird described by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt as Palaeochenoides mio- 

 ceanus, from the distal end of a femur found in South Carolina, was con- 

 sidered by him to be of Anserine affinities. A reexamination of the 

 specimen, however, now shows that it is unmistakably a member of the 

 Steganopodes, and is apparently most closely allied to the Pelecanidae, 

 though it may represent a distinct family. Harry C. Oberholser. 



