8 NOMENCLATURE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



I^olyhorus peculiar to Guadaliipe and a Conurus found both in Socorro 

 aud in western Mexico. Indeed, the greater i)art of Mexico itself (all, in 

 fact, except the narrow coast-region, or tierra caliente^ and the lowlands 

 of the southern portion) belongs, ornithologically as well as geograph- 

 ically, to Xorth America, as might easily be demonstrated did space 

 permit; but the enlargement of our field to its proper limits would be 

 <iuite impracticable at the present time. For the surrender of this our 

 rightful territory, however, we have compensation in the fact that the 

 arbitrary line which we have drawn (i. e., the United States and Mexican 

 boundary from the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Colorado) gives 

 a comparative stability to the list which a greater southward extension 

 of the area, with indefinite limits, would render impossible. After hav- 

 ing thus defined the southern limits of our field, however, we are con- 

 strained, by important and carefully considered circumstances, to retain 

 in the list some seven or eight species of Mexican birds treated by Pro- 

 fessor Baird in volume ix, Pacific Eailroad Eeports ("Birds of Xorth 

 America"), aud included in the catalogue of 1859. They were all ob- 

 tained just across the Eio Grande, and therefore it may be deemed per- 

 fectly safe to assume that their occasional occurrence on our side of the 

 river is certain, and their capture there merely a question of time. Ten 

 species published by J. P. Giraud * as having been obtained in Texas, 

 but which have not been subsequently recorded from within our limits, 

 are also included, there being every probability of their occurrence there, 

 while Mr. Giraud strenuously maintained, to the day of his death, that 

 they were really collected in that State. Neither are we prepared to 

 relinquish certain Audubonian species which at j) resent are known only 

 from the works of their describer (e. </., Regulus curieri, Perissoglossa [?] 

 carbonatay Dendrwca [?] montana^ and Myiodioctes ["?] minutus), as well as 

 two well-known species given by Audubon on Jds own aut1writy*{Chrij- 

 somitris ^^magellanica^^ = C. notata, and Eudocimus ruber), having full 

 confidence, as we do, in his veracity.t 



* A Description of Sixteen New Species of North American Birds. By Jacob P. 

 Giraud, jr. New York, George F. Nesbitt printer, Tontine Building, corner of Wall 

 and Water streets. 1841. Folio. Not paged, 8 plates. [For species given in this 

 work which have not since been obtained within the limits of the United States, see 

 p. 75.] 



tin several instances where Audubon received his specimens and the particulars 

 relating to tlic^m at second hand he was evidently imposed upon — " CarducUs sfanleyi" 

 {^^Chrysomitris barbata), C. yarrelli, and TrocJiilns mango {—Lanqiornis riolicauda), all 

 well-known South American birds, being cases in point. But the birds which we have 

 called special attention to above are all so clearly described and accurately tigured 

 that we must either regard them as valid species or, as the only alternative, view 



