PKOCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 415 



Mr. Belding'. He sends two specimens, an adult male and female, which 

 agree closely wath Maz;i tlan examples. These western specimens all 

 differ appreciably from eastern ones (from Yucatan and Honduras) in 

 the darker shade of chestnut on the head and in some other less im- 

 portant characters, but until I have seen more specimens I do not ven- 

 ture to sej)arate them. 



The group to which this species belongs is an exceedingly difficult one 

 on account of the great amount of variation with locality. A recent 

 examination of a large series of specimens from various localities 

 strongly suggests the probability of the existence in Middle America 

 and the West Indies of but a single species of "Golden Warbler" be- 

 sides D. cvstlva, but this broken up into numerous local races more 

 or less distinct from one another. According to this view, D. petechia, 

 D. capitalis, and other West Indian races, D. aureola, of the Galapa- 

 gos, D. vieilloti, and the i)resent bird would all represent merely local 

 variations of a single species, the difference being appreciable chiefly, 

 if not oidy, in fully adult males, and consisting in the varying amount 

 of rufous on the head and under parts. So far as the material in the 

 National Museum collection is concerned, the distinctions between the 

 present bird and the true I), vieilloti, pointed out in the descriptions 

 above cited, hold good, and I must therefore, for the present at least, 

 beg to dissent from the opinion of Messrs. Salv^in and Godman (in Biol. 

 Centr.-Am. Aves, i, p. 125) that D. hryanti cannot be separated from D. 

 vieilloti. 



Smithsonian Institution, March 10, 1882. 



THE TAXOIVOMOIVBC REI^ATIONS AIND CiEOORAPHICAl. Dli^TRI- 



BUTIO.X OF Tfitii: mSITieERS OF THE SWORD-FISH FAlTIIIiV, 



xiphii».ie:. 



By q,. BfEOW^lV GOODIC. 



The following essay toward a reformulation of the characters by 

 which the members of the sword-fish family are classified is the outcome 

 of a systematic study of this group of fishes, a detailed statement of 

 which, together with an account of the sword-fisheries of the world, 

 are given in fall in a forthcoming report of the United States Fish Com- 

 mission. The views of the writer having been somewhat modified since 

 reading the proof-sheets of the report just referred to, the portion re- 

 lating to the classification of the group has been rearranged and is here 

 presented. The views of Dr. Liitken, of the Zoological Museum, Copen- 

 hagen, as expressed in his recent work entitled " Spolia Atlantica", have 

 received a careful consideration in the preparation of these notes, and 

 have, to a considerable extent, been adopted. 



As Dr. Liitken has pointed out, the genus Xiphias, to which the com- 

 mon sword-fish belongs, cannot, as has hitherto been customary, be re- 

 garded as the central type of the family, but must be considered au 



