Recently published Ornithological Works. 197 



intermediate links to connect it with T. felix. Moreover the 

 bird has a distinct island habitat^ which renders it very un- 

 likely that intermediate forms exist. That it is '' clearly de- 

 rivative from the mainland species ^^ does not preclude its 

 being a distinct species, which we suspect it really is. 



Mr. W. H. Heushaw returns to the discussion respecting 

 Selasphorus alleni, and endeavours to show that he was right 

 in bestowing a name upon the green-backed Selasphorus, 

 using S. rufus (Gm.) for the well-known rufous-backed 

 form. Mr. Elliot^ holding the opposite view, has renamed 

 the rufous-backed bird S. henshaivi. The whole point turns 

 upon Latham's description in the ' General Synopsis ' (i. 

 p. 785), as from it Gmelin framed his diagnosis. One of 

 Latham's characters, " between the wings a greenish gloss/' 

 supports to some extent the view that he had the green- 

 backed bird before him. This, however, is quite set aside 

 a little further on when the green back of the female is 

 compared with the rufous back of the male. Swainson's 

 testimony {F. B.-Am. ii. p. 496) is entirely in favour of 

 Latham's bird being the rufous-backed form. He describes 

 a specimen in his own possession, which he bought from 

 Bullock, who had it from Sir Joseph Banks, who probably 

 received it from some one who accompanied Cook in his last 

 voyage*. This specimen was doubtless a typical one. The 

 peculiarity of the range of the two forms appears caj)able of 

 being accounted for by viewing the northern rufous-backed 

 bird to be a migratory species spending its summers in Western 

 America north of California, and its winters in the Mexican 

 highlands. On the other hand the Californian S. alleni is 

 probably nearly sedentary, or, at all events, performs no 

 such lengthened migration as its near ally. On the whole 

 we think Mr. Henshaw right in his view of the question. 



Mr. William Brewster has an article on the first plumage 

 of a number of American birds ; and he is followed by Mr. J. 

 A. Allen, who criticises Mr. Wallace's ' Theory of Birds' 

 Nests,' to show its inadequacy as applied to the birds of the 



* [I have searched for this specimen in the Swainson C(jllection at 

 Cambridge, but have not succeeded in finding it. — 0. S.] 



