Vol-XVI-] General Notes. 1 83 



present case, the alteration in a specific term makes necessary a corre- 

 sponding correction throughout a long list of subspecies. Under our 

 rules of nomenclature, however, there seems no doubt of the untenability 

 of Melospiza fasciata ; since Fringilla fasciata Gmelin (Syst. Nat., 1788, 

 I, 922) used for the Song Sparrow, is preoccupied by Fringilla fasciata 

 Miiller (Syst. Nat., Anhang, 1776, 165), which is a synonym of Spinus 

 pinus. The only available name for the eastern Song Sparrow is Frin- 

 gilla melodia Wilson (Am. Orn., 1S10, II, 125, pi. XVI, fig. 4), and the 

 species consequently should be called Melospiza melodia. 



Fringilla guttata Nuttall (Man. Orn., ed. 2, 1S40, I, 581), which is now 

 Melospiza fasciata guttata, is debarred by Fringilla guttata Vieillot 

 (Nouv. Diet, d'llist. Nat., 1S17, XII, 233), for an Australian Weaver-bird. 

 As the Rusty Song Sparrow seems to have no other name, it may be 

 called Melospiza melodia morphna. 



The Song Sparrows will then stand as follows: 



Melospiza melodia melodia (Wilson). 



Melospiza melodia fallax (Baird). 



Melospiza melodia montana (.Henshaw). 



Melospiza melodia heermanni (Baird). 



Melospiza melodia samuelis (Baird). 



Melospiza melodia morphna Oberholser. 



Melospiza melodia rufina (Bonaparte). 



Melospiza melodia rivularis (Bryant). 



Melospiza melodia graminea (Townsend). 



Melospiza melodia elemental (Townsend). 



Melospiza melodia cooper i (Ridgway). 



Melospiza melodia pusillula (Ridgway). 



Melospiza melodia caurina (Ridgway). 



Melospiza melodia mexicana Ridgway. 



Melospiza melodia adusta (Nelson). 



Melospiza melodia goldmani (Nelson). — Harry C. Oberholser, 

 Washington, D. C. 



On the name Xenocichla. — Of late years the term Xenocichla has 

 been in quite general use for a group of Ethiopian Bulbuls, having as its 

 type the Dasycephala syndactyla of Swainson. Xenocichla was founded 

 by Hartlaub in his ' Orn. Westafricas,' 1857, p. 86, but in the list of addi- 

 tions and corrections on p. 272, the name is noted as being equivalent to 

 Bleda Bonap. The exact place of publication of Bonaparte's name 

 seems to have puzzled recent ornithologists, and we find it quoted at 

 second hand' and without date in Waterhouse's 'Index' and Sharpe's 

 ' Catalogue of Birds.' The proper reference is Rev. et Mag. de Zool., 

 Feb. 1857, 50, which antedates Ilartlaub's work by at least two months. 

 The type being the same in both cases, Xenocichla becomes a perfect 

 synonym of Bleda, which should henceforth be used. The species of 

 the genus, as recently restricted by Shelley, are Bleda syndactyla (Swains.), 



