398 



Recent Literaticre. [Jw'y 



on the basis of its actual capture within the prescribed limits. A natural 

 faunal boundary would have been preferable could such have been de- 

 fined, but with our present imperfect knowledge of the ornithology of the 

 region south of the United States, the adoption of such a line is for the 

 present impracticable — in fact, simply impossible. 



Compared with former lists, in respect to the nomenclature adopted, 

 the reduction in the number of genera, and the recognition of subgenera, 

 are features of note. Other changes result from the strict enforcement of 

 the law of priority, in respect not only to genera and species, but also to 

 subspecies. As an outcome of this, many radical changes necessarily 

 resulted. The English names, in some cases, are also changed, through 

 an effort to adopt the most suitable, all things considered; and in the 

 interest of brevity and simplicity only one name is in any case given for 

 a species or subspecies, alternative names being omitted. The concord- 

 ance of previous check-lists, however, gives a ready clue to either the 

 scientific or vernacular names of any form as designated in each of the 

 four preceding lists. 



In the A. O. U. 'Check-List' 768 species are recognized, //«5 183 sub- 

 species, against 764 species and 160 subspecies in Mr. Ridgway's list of 

 18S0, or a total of 951 names in the former against 924 in the latter, and 

 888 in Dr. Coues's list of 1882. This gives an apparent increase over 

 Mr. Ridgway's list of 4 species and 27 subspecies (=31) ; but the actual 

 increase is 29 species and 45 subspecies (^ 74)-* In reality, however, 

 some 50 names were eliminated and nearly 80 added. The changes intro- 

 duced in the names themselves, including the many generic changes, 

 probably aff'ect about one-third of the specific and subspecific names. 

 Twenty-six species and subspecies, not satisfactorily established as North 

 American birds, though previously included in one or more of the earlier 

 check-lists, are removed to a supplementary 'Hypothetical List,' being 

 thus held in abeyance for further information respecting them. A list of 

 the fossil species of North American birds, and a full index, closes the 

 work, of which the 'Code' occupies pp. 1-69, the 'Check-List' proper, pp. 

 71-347, the 'Hypothetical List,' pp. 349-357, the list of 'Fossil Birds of 

 North America,' pp. 359-367. and the Index, pp. 369-392. — J. A. A.] 



Madarasz's 'Zeitschrift fiir Ornithologie.' — The latest numbers of the 

 'Zeitschrift fiir die gesammte Ornithologie,' edited at Budapest by Dr. 

 Julius von Madardsz, have recently come to hand. Part IV of 1885 con- 

 tains the first of a series of memoirs by O. Finsch and A. B. Meyer on 

 birds from New Guinea, especially from the Alpine region on the south- 

 eastern slope of the Owen Stanley Range. It treats of the Birds of Para- 

 dise (19 species), of which not less than 6 new ones are described, among 

 them types of two new genera, Astrarchia and Paradisornis, besides the 



*The increase over Dr. Coues's list is much greater, in consequence mainly of the 

 addition of the peninsula of Lower California and its dependent islands to the area 

 covered by the new list. 



