'^°',g^J^] Recent Literature. 309 



18, of which 5 are described as new and three others previously described 

 are reinstated. O. a. arenicola Henshaw is treated as a synonym of O. a. 

 leucohsma Coues, the habitat and characters of which were misinter- 

 preted by Mr. Henshaw, whose ruling in the case has hei-etofore been 

 followed. The subspecies fraticola^ giraudi, merrillt, strigata, riibea, 

 adusta, and pallida stand practically as heretofore. True alpestris is 

 restricted (in the breeding season) to northeastern North America, from 

 Newfoundland northward, the Old World form of this group standing as 

 fulva (Gmelin). O. a. leucolt^na of Henshaw and Dwight (not of Coues) 

 is separated into an Alaskan form arcticola (subsp. nov.) and hoyti Bishop, 

 the latter occupying the Mackenzie Valley region. O. a. enthymia (subsp. 

 noy.) fills in the small gap between the breeding ranges oi praticola, hoyti 

 and leticolcema TSaskatchewan and Assiniboia south to northern North 

 Dakota). O. a. insularis of Townsend and occidentalis of McCall are 

 rehabilitated, and the new forms actia, ammofhila and leucat/sipiila 

 occupy, respectiyely, small areas of the coast region of southern California 

 and northern Lower California, the Mohaye Desert and Owens Valley, 

 and the region about Yuma, Arizona. 



The paper is illustrated by six photographic illustrations showing dif- 

 ferent types of enyironment, and by four maps showing (i) the range of 

 the genus, (2) the breeding areas of the American forms, and (3 and 4) 

 the breeding areas of the Old World forms. These areas are necessarily 

 in part hypothetical, especially for the Old World forms, and the number 

 and relations of the forms can hardly be said to be as yet reduced to a 

 certaint}'. Mr. Oberholser's review, however, is an important con- 

 tribution to a most difficult subject, and will doubtless stand as the ' last 

 word ' for some time to come, although, in the nature of the case, his 

 results must be held as more or less tentative. The identification of our 

 Horned Larks is of course rendered more difficult through the increased 

 number of forms, and only an Otocoris expert can hope to identify 

 isolated specimens, especially when we find that three forms — alpestris, 

 hoyti and praticola — are recorded from Long Island, New York, and that 

 one of them, praticola., is liable to turn up as far west as central Arizona. 

 — J. A. A. 



Ogilvie-Grant on Recently Described American Gallinae. — In an article 

 in the April number of "The Ibis' Mr. Ogilvie-Grant gives his opinion,' 

 ex cathedra, concerning certain North American rasorial birds recently 

 described by some of his American confreres. Whatever may be the 

 case as regards available material from Mexico — we leave this phase 

 of the subject to those most interested — when the comparative re- 

 sources of the British Museum collection are in question, we feel sure 



^ Remarks on the Species of American Gallinas recently described, and Notes 

 on their Nomenclature. By W. R. Ogilvie-Grant. Ibis, April, 1902, pp. zt,^- 

 245. 



