Recent Ornithological Publications. 187 



habitat of this Pitta, which was obtained from M. Parzudaki of 

 Paris, and we are almost inclined to doubt the " white wings " 

 being anything more than a character of immaturity. 



(2.) Description of a new North-American Grouse, by Dr. 

 Suckley — Pedicecetes kennicottii — a northern form of the Sharp- 

 tailed Grouse (P. phasianellus) , from Fort Rae and Voig Island 

 in Arctic America near Great Slave Lake. 



(3.) Amonograph of the genus ^giothus, by Mr. Coues (p. 373) . 

 Mr. Coues has worked diligently at the series of Redpolls in the 

 collection of the Smithsonian Institution, " which consists of more 

 than one hundred specimens from very various localities in Ame- 

 rica, Europe, and Greenland, and comprises all the known spe- 

 cies, except ^. rufescens and ^. holbblli." Mr. Coues has also 

 received examples of these birds for comparison from the Museum 

 of Copenhagen ; and from these materials makes out seven species 

 of this group, namely : — 



1 . ^. rostratus, sp. nov., of Greenland. 



2. ^. fuscescens, sp. nov., of Labrador. 



3. y^. rufescens, of Europe. 



4. j^. linaria, of Europe, Asia, and North America. 



5. ^. holbolli, of Northern and Western Europe. 



6. ^. exilipes, sp. nov., of North America. 



7. ^. canescens, of Greenland. 



We should be sorry to hazard any opinion on these new species 

 without having inspected the type-specimens; but every one who 

 looks at Mr. Coues's paper must admit that his conclusions are 

 not hastily arrived at, and that his descriptions of the birds of 

 this group have been worked out with care and precision. 



The * Proceedings of the Californian Academy of Sciences ' * 

 for 1861 contain a paper by Dr. J. G. Cooper, wherein are de- 

 scribed two new Californian birds — an Owl, allied to Glaucidium 

 gnoma (of Baird's N. A. Birds= Glaucidium californicum, Sclater), 

 which he proposes to call Athene whitneyi, and a Wood-warbler, 

 of the genus Helminthophaga {H. lucia) . Both these birds were 

 obtained in the Colorado Valley, where the latter is said to be 



* Proceedings of the Californian Academy of Sciences, 1858-61, vol. ii. 

 p. 124. 



