1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 87 
is described by Miss Richardson in the Proceedings of the Biological 
Society of Washington, and that four new species of the same genus 
obtained by the same vessel are described almost at the same time 
by Dr H. J. Hansen in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative 
Zoology at Harvard College. Of the high merit of all Dr Hansen’s 
zoological work mention has been too recently made to need further 
comment on this occasion. In regard to Miss Richardson’s excellent 
contributions to our knowledge ef the Isopoda, the suggestion may 
be diffidently hazarded that researches reported in a collected and 
connected form are now-a-days more acceptable than isolated 
descriptions, 
SoME MEXICAN BIRDS 
Iv a short paper published in the Proceedings of the Biological Society 
of Washington (vol. xii., pp. 57-68; March 24, 1898) Mr E, W. 
Nelson includes a critical examination of the long-nailed partridges, 
for which Mr Ogilvie-Grant established the genus Dactylortyx 
in 1893 (cf. Cat. Brit. Mus. xxi. p. 429). Mr Ogilvie Grant was 
only able to include a single species, D. thoracicus, under this 
genus; but Mr Nelson decides that Mr Ogilvie Grant united two 
distinct species, of which he supplies the distinguishing characters. 
He also describes two new species of long-nailed partridges, both 
obtained in Mexico. Mr Nelson has discovered several other species 
and sub-species of birds in Mexico. Of these, perhaps the most 
surprising novelty is the Sinaloa Martin (Progne sinaloae), procured 
upon the western slope of the Sierra Madre, between 2500 and 
4000 feet altitude. Oddly enough, this new species from North- 
west Mexico is closely related to the pretty Caribbean Martin 
(Progne dominicensis) which is peculiar to the West Indian Isles. 
A good figure of the latter will be found in Sharpe and Wyatt’s 
“ Monograph of the Hirundinidae,” vol. u, plate 91. 
THE Buack KITE 
CounT ARRIGONI DEGLI ODDI is one of the most enthusiastic of the 
younger generation of Italian ornithologists, and has recently pub- 
lished several excellent papers on the birds of his country. An 
essay just issued by him, at Venice purports to be a notice of the 
nesting of Milvus migrans in the province of Verona, but it is, in 
point of fact, almost a life-history of the Black Kite. The author 
supplies dates for the arrival and departure of this hawk in and 
from Verona for a term of fifteen years, from which we learn that 
it reaches its summer quarters in March, and leaves for Africa 
again in August, or at the commencement of September. The 
duties of incubation are performed by the female bird, and occupy 
from eighteen to twenty days. The old kites are devoted to their 
