367 REVIEWS. 



has demonstrated. In some cases indeed, Floridan forms furnish 

 exactly intermediate links, as when the Floridan Thryothorus 

 grades from Ludovicianus proper into Bedandieri ; and again there 

 are cases, like that of the Quail, where the Floridan form, although 

 unnamed, is as different from average Northern samples as 0. 

 Texanus is. Promulgation of data so pertinent to the general 

 question of variation in feral animals is a service of great moment 

 to ornithology, and Mr. Allen's careful handling of the subject 

 elevates his "Winter Birds of East Florida" to a place that no 

 mere annotated catalogue, however good, could claim. 



Still keeping away from the main issue, we will note certain 

 discussions, some relevant and others not so, that the Floridan 

 list affords. Bartram's somewhat celebrated " Sacred Vulture" 

 certainly needed the overhauling it gets ; Mr. Allen finds it a 

 myth, based upon SarcorJiampJms pcqm, with a dash of Polyhorus 

 tharus, and an infusion of Bartram's imagination ; which is pretty 

 much as was to have been expected. The origin of the domestic 

 turkey is handled at some length. After fusing M. Mexicana with 

 M. gallopavo, Mr. Allen attempts to refute LeConte's and Baird's 

 theories, arguing that the domestic bird was reimported from 

 Europe, whither it was originally carried from Mexico. Among 

 other discussions, are those upon the species of Cathartes, Buteo, 

 Parus, Passerculus, Quiscalus and Tuirhis, in which the writer 

 pleads for a much less number of species than are usually ad- 

 mitted, and presents some astonishing lists of synonyms. "We 

 have no other objection to these disquisitions, than that they lead 

 to nothing tangible, for they seem to us to be merely a recapitula- 

 tion of what was before known of the close resemblance, and wide 

 limits of variation, of the species in question ; the ojnnion that 

 Mr. Allen offers of their specific identity being, of course, a fore- 

 gone conclusion from his premises. It seems to us unnecessary 

 for Mr. Allen to raise the Hylocichla question for the third time, 

 merely to repeat, with some expansion, the remarks that appeared 

 in his "Birds of Massachusetts" and "Birds of Iowa" ; no good 

 can result, we conceive, from rehearsal of items already the com- 

 mon property of ornithologists, or from reiteration of individual 

 opinion. 



The many extensive and elaborate tables of measurements that 

 enrich the " Winter Birds of Florida," and show not only the dis- 

 crepancy in size between Floridan and Northern birds, but also the 



