[Auk 

 Jan. 



species of T. bewichii spilurus and T. b. leucogaster of the Check-List 

 are for the first time separated and named. The United States forms of 

 the group are as follows : (i) T. bexvickii beivickii (Aud.), of the eastern 

 United States; {2) T. b. cryptus, Texas, Nuevo Leon, and Tamaulipas, 

 and probably north to Kansas; (3) T. b. eremop&ilus, southern border for 

 the United States, from western Texas and southern Colorado to south- 

 eastern California, south over the tablelands of Mexico; (4) T. b. char- 

 ■ienturus, coast region of southern California, from about Pasadena south 

 into northern Lower California; (5) T. b. drymcecus, Sacramento and 

 San Joaquin valleys west to the coast about San Simeon, California; (6) 

 T. b. spilurus (Vigors), vicinity of San Francisco Bay, California ; (7) 

 T. b. calophonus. Pacific Coast, from Oregon north to southern Van- 

 couver Island and the valley of the Frazer River, British Columbia; (8) 

 T. b. nesophilus, Santa Rosa and Santa Cruz Islands, California; (9) 

 T. b. leucophrys (Anthony), San Clemente Island, California; (10) T. b. 

 ■cerroensis (Anthony), Cerros Island, Lower California. The other 

 members of the group are (1) T. b. percnus, State of Jalisco, north to 

 Central Zacatecas, south to Guerrero; (2) T. b. murinus (Hartl.), States 

 of Hidalgo, Mexico, Tlaxcala, and northern Morelos, Mexico; (3) T. b. 

 bairdi (Salv. & Godm.), Oaxaca, southern Puebla, and southwestern 

 Vera Cruz, Mexico; (4) T. insularis (Lawr.), Socorro Island. Mexico; 

 (5) T. brevicaudus Ridgw., Guadalupe Island, Mexico. Thus five of 

 the forms are insular. 



Mr. Oberholser is no doubt very keen at discriminating slight differ- 

 ences, not only in the present but in some other instances. The ques- 

 tion is not so much whether the differences claimed exist, but the 

 advisability of their recognition in nomenclature. The present group is 

 apparently not exceptionally plastic, and the same methods carried out 

 among North American birds in general would doubtless result in num- 

 berless similar minute subdivisions, which it would serve no good pur- 

 pose to recognize as ' subspecies.' In the present case the rather startling 

 results seem due rather to a new point of view as regards the value of 

 slight differences than to the discovery of new characters. 



We observe that Mr. Oberholser rejects the name leucogaster used 

 by Baird for the Texan form, and renames it cryptus, on the ground that 

 Baird did not give a new name in this instance but used the name leuco- 

 gaster of Gould, through a misidentification of Gould's species ; and that, 

 therefore, " according to the usual procedure in such cases," Baird's 

 name is unavailable — a point apparently well taken. 



Incidentally Mr. Oberholser claims full generic rank for Tliryomanes 

 and Auorthura, and we believe with good reason. — J. A. A. 



Bangs on Birds from Colombia. 1 — Mr. Bangs here reports on a third 



1 On some Birds from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia. By 

 Outram Bangs. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. XII, 1898, pp. 171-182. 

 Oct. 31, 1898. 



