308 Recent Literature. [^^",^ 



required for the purpose of replacing preoccupied names ; and (4) tliat 

 one half of the new names have been bestowed in christening groups 

 believed bj the authors of the names to be new. It may be added that the 

 names needlessly, or knowingly, given to replace others, generally on 

 avowed grounds of purism, are chargeable mainly to two authors, too 

 well known for their efforts to ' purify ' zoological nomenclature to require 

 inention in the present connection, and not to any general proneness on 

 the part of ornithological systematists in general to this sort of purifica- 

 tion.— J. A. A. 



Oberholser's Review of the Horned Larks. 1 — The Horned Larks are 

 known as an exceptionally plastic group, of wide distribution, ranging 

 from the arctic regions well into the tropics, in both the Old World and 

 the New, and hence subject to great diversity of environment. Such 

 conditions are eminently favorable for differentiation and the segregation 

 of local races. Of the 36 forms recognized by Mr. Oberholser, all but six 

 are ranked as subspecies. Of Otocoris alpestris alone 23 forms are recog- 

 nized, one of which occupies northern Europe and northern Asia, the 

 rest being American, of which one is found in Colombia, several others 

 in Mexico, and no less than 18 in North America, north of Mexico. The 

 Old World forms include, besides O. alpestris Jiava, 5 other species and 

 8 additional subspecies, known as yet from scanty material, in compari- 

 son with the American forms. Of the 36 forms recognized by Mr. 

 Oberholser, 8 are here described as new. 



The trenchantly defined forms are few ; in the other cases, both in the 

 Old World and America, Mr. Oberholser finds that the forms insensibly 

 grade into other forms, often into several other forms, "so that with all 

 the connecting links represented it frequently becomes a matter of consid- 

 erable difficulty satisfactorily to segregate the forms represented by such 

 series." He also finds that "the reduplication of forms in far separated 

 localites seems to be carried to the extreme" in the present group, which 

 reduplication he attributes, in part, to the interbreeding of several closely 

 allied forms where their ranges come together. 



While Mr. Oberholser's material for his present ' Review' does not 

 greatly exceed in amount that at the disposal of Dr. Dwight in his re- 

 vision of the American forms of Otocoris in 1890, it is largely different, 

 containing a much greater proportion of breeding birds, and much 

 material from regions scantily or not at all represented in the material 

 studied by Dr. Dwight, who had very little from points south of the 

 United States. While Dr. Dwight recognized only 11 forms from North 

 America, north of Mexico, Mr. Oberholser finds it expedient to recognize 



^A Review of the Larks of the Genus Otocoris, By Harry C. Oberholser, 

 Assistant Ornithologist, Department of Agriculture. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 

 Vol. XXIV, No. 1271, pp. 801-884, with maps and plates. June, 1902. 



