98 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington . 



ARISTONETTA, A GOOD GENUS. 



The canvas-back duck, Anas valisineria Wilson, is commonly referred 

 to the genus Marila Oken (type, Marila marila) or more properly to 

 Nyroca Fleming (type, Nyroca nyroca), the latter being a group readily 

 separable from Marila. A comparison of the canvas-back's structural 

 characters, however, with those of the species composing the genera 

 Marila and Nyroca, reveals at once that it is generically distinct. Its 

 nearest ally is the European pochard Nyroca Jerina (Linnaeus), but from 

 tli is and from Nyroca americana it differs in the following respects: ex- 

 posed culmen equal to the inner toe with claw ; bill not wider near tip 

 than at base, much flattened terminally, and with the tip of the maxilla 

 very slightly or not at all hooked ; greatest width of the bill only one-third 

 of the length of exposed culmen ; feathers on side of maxilla reaching as 

 far forward as the feathers on the culmen; and nostril much elongated. 



The generic name of this species is of course Aristonetta Baird (Rep. 

 Expl. <fc Surv. R. R. Pac, IX, 1858, p. 793; type by original designation, 

 Anas valisineria Wilson). Our canvas-back should, therefore, hereafter 

 be known as Aristonetta valisineria (Wilson). — Harry C. Oberholser. 



SPIZELLA MONTICOLA (GMELIN), THE CORRECT NAME FOR 

 THE NORTH AMERICAN TREE SPARROW. 



Messrs. Mathews and Iredale have recently proposed* to replace Frin- 

 gilla monticola Gmelinf by Fringilla canadensis Boddaert, * and thus to 

 call our North American tree sparrow Spizella canadensis (Boddaert). 

 The fatal flaw in this proposition, to which Dr. Charles W. Richmond 

 has called the writer's attention, is the misidentification of Boddaert' s 

 name. The Fringilla canadensis of Boddaert was based on d'Aubenton, 

 Planch. Enlum., No. 223, Fig. 2; " Le Soulciet" of Buffon§ ; and Bris- 

 son's " Moineau de Canada. "|| A careful examination of d'Aubenton's 

 plate and the descriptions of Bufion and Brisson above quoted leave no 

 doubt at all that the bird figured and described is not Spizella monticola 

 (Gmelin), but Zonotrichia Uucophrys in juvenal plumage. The figure is 

 poor and apparently resembles the juvenal plumage of Zonotrichia gam- 

 beli, but since the chances are so much against the probability that 

 d'Aubenton had available a specimen of the western Zonotrichia gambeli, 

 and particularly since Brisson in his description mentions a dark lore 

 spot, it is much more credible that we have here a poor figure of Zono- 

 trichia leucophrys, than of Zonotrichia gambeli. In any case the name 

 Fringilla canadensis Boddaert can not be applied to Spizella monticola 

 (Gmelin), and the latter must therefore still be called by its current 

 name. — Harry C. Oberholser. 



* Austral Avian Record, III, No. 2, November 19, 1915, p. 41. 



tSyst. Nat., I, ii, 1789, p. 912 (Canada). 



ITabl. Planch. Enlum. d'Hlst. Nat., 1783, p. 13. 



^ Hist. Nat. Oiseaux, ed. Montbeillard, VI, 1775, p. 213. 



llOrnith., 111,1760, p. 102. 



