1 28 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



own name, and the letter " 1/' for instance, suppressed to render 

 its utterance easier to English lips ? 



The value of a system is in its application ; we will therefore 

 examine a few of the genera adopted in this work, and we will 

 take first Leucolia, Muls. & Verr. (p. 31). This genus con- 

 tains Doleriscd, Cab., Cijanomyia (nee Cyanomya), Gould, Leu- 

 cippus, Bp., and Pldoyophilus, Gould, besides several species 

 of Thaumatias, placed as if Mr. Gould had included them under 

 Cynnomyia. The types of all these genera are included in the 

 list of sj)ccies forming Leucolia ; surely, then, there was no need 

 of inventing this additional name ? The localities, too, of many 

 of the species are wrongly assigned. Dolerisca fallax and Cya- 

 nomyia quadricolor are said to be from New Granada instead of 

 from "Venezuela and Mexico respectively ; while C. guatemalensis 

 (the patria, we should have thought, was sufficiently indicated 

 by its name) is put down as coming from Mexico ! Thai/matias 

 candidus, too, is said to be from New Granada, which it certainly 

 is not. We have also to inquire what has befallen the Peruvian 

 Cyanonnjia cyanicollis and the Doleriscacervina, Gould (Introduc- 

 tion, p. 50) ? Does M. Mulsant deny them specific rank, or have 

 they accidentally escaped his notice ? 



As a further instance of the propriety of M. Mulsant^s arrange- 

 ment, we must mention that the two very closely allied birds 

 Erythronota edwardsi and E. niveiventris are j)laced in different 

 genera — the first in Anwzilia (p. 35), the second in Ariana 

 (p. 36), another new genus, the name of which should probably 

 be correctly spelt Ariadne. Again, the very natural group Pan- 

 oplitcs, Gould, is scattered to the winds; of the three species 

 composing it, P. jardinii is placed in a subgenus (Galenia) of 

 Florisuga (p. 47) ; P. matthewsi is included, with a host of other 

 genera, in Clytolanna (p. 59) ; while P. flavescens — the type of 

 the genus — constitutes by itself a genus upon which a new name, 

 Callidice (p. 65), is bestowed ! 



Besides the two we have already mentioned, a considerable 

 number of species seem to be wholly omitted. We have been 

 unable to find Heliomaster longirostris and its allies. On the 

 other hand, we have here and there new species inserted without 

 any descriptions at all. Docs not M. Mulsant know that, what- 



