512 Recently published Ornithological Works. 



to the Ivory Gull as the tijpe of the genus, because of the 

 two it stands the first. Again, it seems a pity to discard the 

 thoroughly well-based and established name Sterna anglica 

 for the Gull-billed Tern^ in favour of Hasselquist's S. nilotica. 

 True, the species in question is found on the Nile, but 

 Hasselquist describes his S. nilotica as having " flesh-coloured 

 feet," which the Gull-billed Tern has not ; whereas the Little 

 Gull, Larus minuius, a bird of about the same size, also found 

 on the Nile, has red legs and feet ; and the same may be said 

 of the Common Tern, Such procedure seems inconsistent 

 with Canon XXXVI., ''A name resting solely on an in- 

 adequate diagnosis is to be rejected ;" and with Canon XLV., 

 *' Absolute identification is requisite in order to displace a 

 modern current name by an older obscure one." Not much 

 more than a year ago, when vol. ii. of the * Water-Birds of 

 North America' was published, the old generic name Mergus 

 given by Linnaeus was good enough, but now it is discarded 

 in favour of Merganser, Brisson ! It is, however, gratifying 

 to find that to the American Bittern is now assigned the 

 well-known specific designation of lentiginosus, instead of that 

 o{ (Botaurus) mugitans (Bartram), a nomen nudum adopted by 

 Dr. Cones. But (Anas) boschas and [Scolopax) rusticola 

 must remain uncorrected, for they were so written, or at least 

 so printed, '' in the beginning," i. e. 1758. 



It is not our wish to pick holes in the execution of the 

 very difficult task of giving, in a few lines, an accurate sketch 

 of the geographical distribution of each of the nearly 800 

 species enumerated, but a few details may be noticed. We 

 think that Mniotilta varia goes beyond " Central America 

 and the West Indies," as far as Colombia and Venezuela ; 

 Turdus fuscescens goes far south of '^ the Plains," even unto 

 Panama and the valley of the Amazons ; and Sialia azurea, 

 the habitat of which is given as " Southern Arizona and 

 Eastern Mexico," breeds in Guatemala. We notice that the 

 authors of the List persist in calling the Cliff-Swallow Petro- 

 chelidon lunifrons (Say), instead o^ P . prjrrhonota (Vieill.), 

 though how they could argue the point out consistently we 

 cannot think. The demands upon our space preclude further 



