i88$.] Stejneger, Analecta Omithologica. 34-1 



This statement, however, is based solely upon Professor Rein- 

 nardt's ' List of the Birds hitherto observed in Greenland ' (Ibis, 

 1S61, p, 15), where it is formulated thus: 



"S7.* Podiceps cornutus (Gmel.). 



"Only a few young birds, obtained in the southern part of Greenland." 

 It is evident from the above that it is the more northern spe- 

 cies, " C. auritus, the Horned Grebe," that has been occasionally 

 obtained in Greenland, and not the black-necked southern spe- 

 cies. The mistake evidently arose from the belief that Newton's 

 ^auritus ' was the same as the * aurifus ' of nearly all American 

 authors up to Ridgway's 'Nomenclature' (1S80), and still of 

 Dr. Coues's publications (' Check-list,' 18S2. and ' Kev,' 1SS4). 



Colymbus nigricollis {aurifus Auct. nee Linn., nee Newton, 

 nee Ridgw.) is a bird of rather southern distribution. In Europe 

 it breeds only in the central parts, being a straggler to the Scan- 

 dinavian peninsula and Finland ; it is common in Central and 

 Southern Russia, and eastward through the southern parts of 

 temperate Asia as far east as Japan. Its alleged occurrence in 

 Greenland, therefore, aroused my suspicion, and the investiga- 

 tion resulted as above in the expulsion of the typical C. nigri- 

 collis from the list of North American birds. 



XXXI. '■ 6'/wo/-//i'//f//?/.? Merrem, 1819." 



I quote the following from my ' Ornithological Explorations in 

 Kamtschatka and the Commander Islands,' p. 38: 



" Merrem is said to have established the genus Simorhynckus 

 (nee Keys, and Blas.. 1S40, qui Terekia Bp.) upon A. cri- 

 statella Pall. As early as 186S Dr. Coues asked, ' Where is this 

 genus named?' but nobody seems to have been able to give an 

 answer. Nor do 1 know whether Merrem included more species 

 than cristatella in his apocryphal genus. Anybody having the 

 opportunity of investigating the matter would gain the lasting 

 thanks of ornithologists by publishing the results — preferably a 

 full extract of Merrem's paper as far as it relates to the present 

 question — in any of the standard ornithological periodicals." 



* "Those observed as yet in very few instances only, and the accidental stragglers, are 

 marked with an asterisk" (t. c. p. 4). 



