Recent Ornithological Publications. 1,21 



with S. bellicosa, De Filippi^ which we have received in collections 

 from Ecuador. A third species of the group is S. defilipjni from 

 La Plata, easily distinguished by its black under-wiug-coverts. 



Recwvirostra andina (capita colloque albis : pallio, alis et 

 Cauda nigris : pedibus plumbeis), from Arica in Peru, seems to 

 be a good new species of Avocet. The existence of an Avocet in 

 South America has already been noted by Rengger (Reise nach 

 Paraguay, p. 225) and A. d'Orbigny (Voy. pt. ii. p. 317), but 

 this is, so far as we know, the first time the species has been 

 identified. 



Dastjcephala albicauda is obviously an Agriornis allied to 



A. livida and A. maritima — two Chilian species, concerning the 

 habits of which some good remarks are given subsequently 

 (p. 136). Messrs. Philippi and Landbeck are, however, quite 

 wrong in referi-ing these birds to Dasycephala, that name of 

 Swainson being synonymous with Attila of Lesson, and having 

 for its type the Muscicapa cinerea (Gm.) — a more or less 

 terrestrial bird of the forests of Brazil, very different in habits 

 from the Agriornithes of the Andes and of the coasts of Chili 

 and Patagonia. 



A second paper by Messrs. Philippi and Landbeck, in the same 

 Number of the ' Archiv,' gives a very interesting account of the 

 four species of Geese found in Chili*. These are, according to 

 ]\Iessrs. Philippi and Landbeck, Bernicla melanoptera (Eyton), 



B. dispar, sp. nov., B. chiloensis, sp. nov., and B. antarctica (Gm.). 

 Bernicla melanoptera, which is the "Piuque" of the Chilians and 



the ^'Huacha" of the Peruvians, is stated to inhabit the small lakes 

 in the Cordilleras of Chili, at a height of 10,000 feet above the 

 sea-level, and to breed there in pairs. In winter the families 

 descend into the low^er marshes. This Goose extends northwards 

 from Chili into Bolivia and Peru. The sexes are alike, the female 

 being, however, smaller in size. 



This species, we may remark, is well figured in the ' Zoology 

 of the Voyage of the Beagle,^ Aves, pi. 50. There are five 

 examples of it in the British Museum, amongst which is Eyton's 

 type-specimen, and one from Lake Titicaca, Bolivia, obtained by 

 Mr. Pentland. 



* " Uebev die Chilenischeii Gaiise," ibid. p. 185. 



