Recent Ornithological Publications. 129 



ever may be the practice in entomology, the publication of MS. 

 names without descriptions has always been regarded by orni- 

 thologists as the one unpardonable offence ? 



We have to notice the ^ Memoires Scientifiques' of M. Fran9ois 

 Pollen — a series of papers contributed to the ' Bulletin de la 

 Societe d'Acclimatation et d'llistoire Naturelle de Pile de la 

 Reunion ' and the ' Bulletin de la Societe des Sciences et Arts ' 

 of the same island, one of which contains the description of a 

 new Sparrow-Hawk from Madagascar, to which the author 

 assigns the name Nisuoides (rectius Nisoides) moreli, founding a 

 new genus for its reception. As, however, we understand that 

 M. Pollen is preparing a detailed work on the ornithology of 

 Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands, we forbear at present to 

 say more on the subject, knowing that we shall have to return 

 to it. 



3. American. 



The * Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History ' 

 for the past year contain a list of birds from Porto Rico, presented 

 to the Smithsonian Institution by Messrs. Swift and Latimer, 

 drawn up by Dr. Bryant, in which three species, Tyrannus anfil- 

 larum, Todus hypochondrincus, and Tanagra {Spindulis) portori- 

 censis, appear to be described as new. The first is presumed to 

 be the Myiarchus sp. ? of Mr. E. C. Taylor's list (Ibis, 1864, 

 p. 109), "and not unlikely the same as the Tobago Bird in Jar- 

 dine's catalogue of the birds of that Island -," but our good friend 

 is very chary of his references, and does not specify which of the 

 three Tyrants mentioned by Sir William (Ann. & Mag. Nat. 

 Hist. XX. pp. 329, 330) it is that he means, if, indeed, he means 

 them at all, — a fact much to be regretted, as the circumstance of 

 a species ranging from Tobago to Porto Rico, though not, we 

 believe, unexampled, is w^orthy of note. Besides these three 

 species. Dr. Bryant describes local varieties of several others, 

 Mimus polyglottus, Certhiula flaveola, Fringilla {Phonipara) zena> 

 Icterus dominicensis, and Saurothera vieil/oti, each of which, except 

 the last, distinguished as " var. rufescens," he designates as 

 " var. portoricensis." These we believe to be the chief objects of 



N. S. VOL. III. K 



