320 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



Mr. Gould will excuse us for remarking that Amydrm tristrami 

 is from Palestine, not Asia Minor ; and that Farm dichrous be- 

 longs to the section Lophophanes, which appears to be fairly 

 separable, generically, from Parus*. 



The Trustees of the British Museum have lately published 

 Part III. Sect. II. of the ' List of Specimens of Birds in the 

 Collection/ embracing the PsittacidcB. Like the other bird- 

 catalogues, it is written by Mr. G. R. Gray, and bears evidence 

 of his usual laborious painstaking in the compilation of syno- 

 nyms. In his present arrangement, Mr. Gray has yielded to a 

 certain extent to the principles of geographical zoology as now 

 recognized ; as, for example, in separating Chrysotis from Psit- 

 tacus, Loriculus from Psittacula, &c., but he has not, in our 

 opinion, carried these principles to their legitimate development. 

 Although we should at present be almost afraid to enter the lists 

 on behalf of Prince Bonaparte's theory, that the Parrots of the two 

 hemispheres are as distinct as the Monkeys, we have little doubt 

 that this position will ultimately be established, when the osteo- 

 logy and anatomy of the group have been properly worked out. 

 Such being the case, we look upon all generic combinations of 

 Old World and New World species as unnatural; and we are sorry 

 to see that Mr. Gray still unites Caica and Pionus with Psit- 

 tacus, Agapornis with Psittacula, and so on. With regard to 

 other points, we may remark that from Mr. Wallace's observa- 

 tions (Ann. Nat. Hist. Feb. 1859, p. 147) it now seems certain 

 that Eclectus does not belong to the Loriince. Again, Masca- 

 rinus (meaning Mascarene, i. e. Madagascarian) surely cannot 

 be used generically or subgenerically for a group of Moluccan 

 Parrots. Its proper type is the Psittacus mascarinus of Gmeliu, 

 from Madagascar. It is true that Lesson unnaturally associated 

 with this bii-d the Green Parrots of the Moluccas, and put them 

 both in the same genus — Mascarinus ; but, when we refer them 

 to their respective positions, Mascarinus must be applied to the 

 INIadagascar bird, and the Green Parrots of the INIoluccas require 

 a new appellation, which, as it has been already suggested, may 

 be Polychlorusf. 



Though the characters of new species given in the notes 



* Confer Cassin in " Birds of California, Oregon, &c.," p. 18. 

 t Sec Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, p. 226. 



