PEOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 163 



A CATAI.OCIJC OF THE BIRDS OF IVORTH A.tlFRICA. 



By ROBERT RIDOTVAY. 



INTRODUCTION. 



During the interval of twenty-one years which has elapsed since the 

 publication of the last Smithsonian catalogue,* a great advance has 

 naturally been made in our knowledge of North American ornithology; 

 and so numerous and important are the changes which have resulted, 

 through additions of new species, rectilications of synonymy, etc., that 

 a new list seems desirable to take the place of the old one. 



The total apparent number of species given in the old catalogue has 

 been increased only from 738 to 764, a slight numerical discrepancy 

 which it is necessary to explain. From the catalogue of 1859 there 

 have been eliminated no less than G2 names, which are either not entitled 

 to a place in the North American fauna or which have been degraded to 

 varietal or sub-specific rank, the number of the species in the latter case 

 being here simply duplicated as many times as there are varieties of a 

 species. To offset this large reduction, 59 valid new species have been 

 described since 1859, and 77 added, or restored, to the fauna, the acces- 

 sions thus numbering 127 species, or 05 more than the eliminations. The 

 forms considered to be of merely subspecific rank number IGO, which, 

 added to the 764 valid species recognized, gives a total of 924 definable 

 forms composing the North American avian fauna, as now understood.! 



It is found impracticable to here distinguish, in all cases, between 



* Two catalogues of North American birds have been issued by the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, as follows : 



(1) Catalogue of North American Birds, chiefly in the Museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. By Spencer F. Baird, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. 

 Washington: Smithsonian Institution. October, 1858. 4to, paper. 1 p. 1., pp. xvii- 

 Ivi. [Reissue, with new title-page, of pp. xvii-lvi of Vol. IX, Pacific R. R. Reports 

 (" Birds of North America"). Includes, besides the list of 7:>8 species, with habitats, 

 tables of the higher groups, and lists of extralimital species ('^3 in number) treated 

 in the general report, and of others (31) claimed, on apparently insufficient grounds, 

 as North American; also a summary of the number of species given in the works of 

 Wilson, Bonaparte, and Audubon. ] 



(2) Catalogue of North American Birds, chiefly in the Museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution. By Spencer F. Baird. First octavo edition. Washington: Smithsonian 

 Institution. [Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, No. 108.] 1859. Svo. 2 p. 11., 

 pp. 19 -j- 2. [Essentially the same as the quarto list, but without habitats, and the 

 matter relating to classification, etc. The two additional pages are an alphabetical 

 index of the North American gerera. As in the quarto list, there are, ostensibly, 738 

 species, but 22 numbers are duplicated, making a total of 760 names in the list.] 



T A fuU analysis of the changes made in this catalogue is given on pages 213-234. 



