Recent Literature. 1G7 



iUrrnt ^Literature. 



Belding and Ridgway's Birds of Central California.* — In 

 this Bulletin for April, 1878 (Vol. Ill, pp. 64-68), is a short report on 

 forty-seven species of California birds, by Mr. Ridgway, based on speci- 

 mens forwarded to the National Museum by Mr. Belding. The present 

 paper continues the subject, and forms a most important contribution to 

 Californian ornithology. It is based, Mr. Ridgway tells us, " upon obser- 

 vations extending through about twenty years' residence in California, and 

 upon collections made chiefly during the last two years, which have, from 

 time to time, been forwarded by Mr. Belding to the National Museum." 

 These collections embrace about 180 species, exclusive of races, and six 

 hundred specimens. Notes on about forty other species are added, raising 

 the whole number of species treated in the list to 220. These are quite 

 fully annotated from Mr. Belding's field notes, while many important 

 technical observations are added by Mr. Ridgway, who is responsible for 

 the identification of the species and the nomenclature adopted. Preceding 

 the list proper is a short account of the several localities at which the 

 collections were made, with tabular lists of the birds observed at each 

 of the more important ones. 



The number of species, exclusive of the wading and swimming birds, 

 is 158. An analysis of these, from a. geographical stand-point, gives 

 the following interesting generalizations: — (1) About one half of the 

 species are strictly Western, not being found east of the Middle Prov- 

 ince. The others are species having what may be termed a continental 

 range ; but (2) of these, thirty, or rather more than one third, are 

 exclusively represented on the Pacific Coast by Western varieties or sub- 

 species (in several cases by more than a single variety), while (3) the 

 remainder, constituting about one third of the whole number, represent 

 typically the Eastern stock, but in several instances are also accompanied 

 by strictly Western races. In reference to the large number of Western 

 species, it may be stated that Geothhipis macgUlivrayi, Zonolrichia inter- 

 media, SturneJla neg/ecta, Pica nuftalti, Contopus richardsoni, and Empi- 

 donax difficilis are accorded full specific rank, while Sjjkgropicus ruber and 

 Colaptes mexicanus are treated as subspecies. 



As on previous recent occasions, Mr. Ridgway here adopts (and we 

 believe consistently) guttata and ustulatus in place respectively of the 

 more familiar names pallasi and swainsoni for two species of Tardus, and 



* A Partial List of the Birds of Central California. By L. Belding of Stoc- 

 ton. Edited by R. Ridgway. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. I, pp. 388-449. 

 April, 1879. 



