46 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington. 



A NEW NAME FOR THE WILD SHEEP OF NORTHEASTERN 



CHINA. 



The wild sheep of the mountains north of Peking was described and 

 figured by Peters in 1876 under the name Ovis jubata. This name is pre- 

 occupied by Ovis aries jubata Kerr, 1792 (Anim. Kingd., p. 330) and Ovis 

 jubata Fitzinger, 1860 (Wiss.-pop. Naturg. der Saugeth., vol. 5, p. 243). 

 Lydekker, 1913 (Cat. Ungulate Mamm., vol. 1, p. 96) erroneously adopted 

 the name Ovis argali mongolica Severtzow, 1873 (Trans. Soc. Nat. Moscou, 

 vol. 8, art. 2, p. 154) for this mountain sheep, but this name is preoccupied 

 by the Ovis steatopyga mongolica of Fitzinger, 1860 (Wiss.-pop. Naturg. 

 der Saugeth., vol. 5, p. 31), and the question of its applicability need not 

 here be considered. Other names placed with a query by Lydekker in 

 the synonymy of "mongolica" (Ovis argali dauricus Severtzow and Ovis 

 darivini Przewalski) are not available for the very distinct sheep described 

 by Peters. The Ovis jubata of Peters (Mon.-ber. K. Preuss. Akad. Wiss., 

 1876, p. 177, pis. 1-4), being without a valid name, may be called Ovis 

 comosa. — N. Hollister. 



THE FAMILY NAME OF THE AMERICAN WOOD WARBLERS. 



Under either of the rules that have been advocated for the determination 

 of family names in zoology, the present designation of the Mniotiltidae 

 must be changed. For a number of years up to 1838 the birds of this 

 group were referred to the Paridae or to the Sylviidae without even sub- 

 family distinction; but in 1838 Bonaparte (Geog. and Comp. List Birds 

 Europe and North America, p. 20) instituted for them the subfamily 

 Sylvicolinae, based on the genus Sylvicola Swainson. Some years later 

 this subfamily was raised to family rank, and thereafter until 1877 it 

 continued to be known as Sylvicolidae. Since, meanwhile, the generic 

 name Sylvicola had passed out of use because preoccupied, Mr. Robert 

 Ridgway, in 1877, changed the family name to Mniotiltidae (U. S. Geol. 

 Explor. 40th Par., IV, No. 3, 1877, p. 427), based on the genus Mniotilta 

 Vieillot. If, however, the oldest genus in the family be used as the type 

 genus, this distinction will fall to Icteria Vieillot (1807), and the family 

 name will become Icteriidae, which is confusingly near the family name 

 Icteridae, now in use for the American Orioles or Hangnests. A better 

 rule, at least in this case, would be to use as a type genus the generic 

 group first made the basis of the family name. In the family of wood 

 warblers this is the genus now known as Compsothlypis Cabanis, which, 

 when called by the preoccupied name Sylvicola Swainson (Philos. Mag., 

 new series, I, June, 1827, p. 433, type designated by Swainson [Zool. 

 Journ., Ill, 1827, p. 169] as Sylvia pusilla Wilson = Compsothlypis ameri- 

 cana pusilla [Wilson]), was the type genus of the family Sylvicolidae. Our 

 wood warblers, now called Mniotiltidae, should, therefore, become Comp- 

 sothlypidae. — Harry C. Oberholser. 



