2'W) Mr. W. U. Ogil\i( -Cii;iiit o)i sliiwricaii (Jallinae. 



bird the name intermedia, had no right to Avithdraw this 

 name in favour of ellioti. 



Coues (Auk, xiv. p. 275) says : — " There is probably 

 another change required in our nomenclature of this genus ; 

 certainly so, if, as some think, M. g. ellioti of Sennett, 1892, 

 is synonymous with his M. //. intermedia of 1879." 



There can be no question about these names being syno- 

 nymous ; Seunett clearly states that they are so, and both 

 were founded on Rio Grande birds. 



Mr. Nelson's M. y. merriami is also merely a synonym ; 

 but by contrasting his birds with examples of M. (jaUopax'o 

 (= raexicana Nelson) and M. amerlcana [—fera Nelson) he 

 would have us suppose that his " new subspecies " is very 

 distinct. A comparison with M. intermedia [=■ yallupavo 

 Nelson), with which his birds are obviously synonymous, is 

 avoided [(/. Auk, xviii. p. 310 (1901)]. 



2. Meleaghis AMERICANA (Cat. B. xxii. p. 389). 



The Turkey question was discussed at some length by 

 Dr. Coues in 1897 [Auk, xiv. pp. 272-275 (1897)]. 



Taking the ' Catalogue of Birds ' he goes through all the 

 older synonyms given there under the heading Meleagris 

 umerlcana. These names are as follows : — 



Gullopavo sylvestris Catesby, Carol, i., App. p. xliv (1730) ; 

 Brisson, Orn. v. p. 162 (1760). 



Meleagris amerlcana Bartram, Trav. p. 290 (1791) [Penn- 

 sylvania] . 



Meleagris palawa Barton, Med. & Phys. J. ii. pt. i. pp. 163- 

 164 (1805) [United States]. 



Meleagris sllvestris Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. ix. p. 447 

 (1817). 



Meleagris fera Vieill. Gal. Ois. ii. p. 10, pi. 201 (1825). 



Coues states his reasons for rejecting the older names, but 

 does not suggest which name, if any, should be substituted 

 for M. amerlcana. In 1899 (Auk, xvi. p. 77) he rectifies 

 his previous omission and proposes the name Meleagris gallo- 

 pavo fera. He also remarks " there occurs on p. 274 the 

 typographical error oi pera i^or fera in citing the Gal. Ois. ii. 



