224 General Notes. [f^^^^ 



that Hortulanus \'ieillot, 1807, had no standing under the new Article 30 

 of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, inasmuch as the 

 author failed to designate its type when founding it, and later ignored it, 

 transferring its three original species to other genera founded by him later, 

 one of these species becoming the type of another genus, and the other 

 two becoming types by subsequent designation of still other genera, the 

 genus Hortulanus not having in the meantime been cited by any other 

 author, except in synonymy, and without designation of a type. Since 

 the publication of this dictum several correspondents have written to 

 me taking exception to it, on the basis, apparently, that a genus properly 

 published cannot be ignored, and if not a homonym must be retained for 

 some one of its original species. (See A. O. U. Code, Canon XIX.) 



As already shown elsewhere, ^ the three original species of Hortulanus 

 are (1) Hortulanus erythrophtalmus (= Fringilla erythrophthalma Linn.), 

 which became the monotypic type of Pipilo Vieill. in 1816. (2) Hortu- 

 lanus albicollis (= Fringilla albicollis Gmel.); which became type by 

 designation of Zonotrichia Swains. 1831 in 1832. (3) Hortulanus nigri- 

 collis (= Emberiza americana Gmel.), which became the type of Spiza 

 Bonap. 1824 by subsequent designation of the founder in 1827. 



If Hortulanus is to be retained as a properly foxmded generic name, 

 the application of the rule of priority to the case would make Fringilla 

 albicollis the type, and Zonotrichia a synonym of Hortulanus. — J. A. 

 Allen, American Museum of Natural History, N^ew York City. 



The Accidental Occurrence of the Green-tailed Towhee (Oreospiza chlor- 

 ura) in Virginia. — Mr. John B. Lewis captured a male of this species at 

 his home, one mile west of Bower's Hill, Virginia, on January 26, 1908, 

 which was subsequently sent to me for identification. The bird was first 

 discovered by his fourteen year old son, in company with White-throated 

 Sparrows, in a thicket along the edge of an open field, and Mr. Lewis stated 

 that its actions resembled very closely those of the sparrows. Bower's 

 Hill is about seven miles southwest of Portsmouth, and within a mile of 

 the border of the Dismal Swamp. 



So far as I can find, there is no other published record of the Green-tailed 

 Towhee east of San Antonio, Texas. 



The specimen in question, although in very poor condition when received, 

 was immediately preserved and is now in the writer's collection. — G. C. 

 Embody, Ashland, Va. 



Type Locality of Vireo pusillus. — It is unfortunate that ^Ir. Grinnell 

 (see Auk, January, 1908, pp. 85, 86) was not able to consult the original 

 description of Vireo pusillus, for if he had done so it would have been 

 quite clear to him that the type specimen — that is, the specimen on which 

 the description was based — is given as "No. 16,954, Smiths. Register, (J*, 



1 Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXIII, p. 360, April 15, 1907. 



