330 Recent Literature. [^ 



The Auk' for 1904 (XXI, p. 408) reference was made to an expedition, 

 sent out early in 1904 by the Hon. John E. Thayer for the purpose of 

 exploring some of the little known islands and other parts of Panama and 

 northern South America, he employing therefor the well-known zoologi- 

 cal collector, Mr. Wilmot W. Brown, Jr. In the present paper 1 we have 

 the first of a series of papers giving the scientific results of the expedition 

 of 1904. Gorgona Island — a heavily wooded, uninhabited islet, five 

 miles long by half a mile wide, situated about twenty miles off Punta las 

 Reyes, Colombia — proved somewhat disappointing, its fauna being poor 

 in both birds and mammals. The rainy season is perennial, and the veg- 

 etation so extremely dense as to be almost impenetrable. The island is 

 of volcanic origin, and forms three peaks, the highest and central one 

 having an altitude of about 800 feet. Mr. Brown found birds so scarce 

 that often the result of a whole day's shooting would not exceed ten 

 specimens, and the dampness was so great that artificial heat was neces- 

 sary to dry the specimens of both birds and mammals to secure their 

 preservation. Mr. Brown remained on the island about two weeks — 

 June 19 to July 2, 1904. 



The present paper includes reports on the mammals (by Mr. Bangs — 

 5 species, two of them new), the birds (by Thayer and Bangs), and the 

 reptiles and amphibians (by Thomas Barbour — 13 species, four new). 

 Fifteen species of birds were obtained most of them in small series, of 

 which five are characterized as new, namely, Sulci etesiuca (somewhat 

 intermediate between 5. breivsteri and 6". leucogastra), Urubitinga sub- 

 tilis, Thamnophilus gorgonce (near T. ncEvius and T. ambiguus), Cyaner- 

 fles gi'gas, and Ccereba gorgonce, the two latter apparently very distinct 

 from their nearest allies. — J. A. A. 



Nelson on the Names of Certain North American Birds, etc. — Mr. 

 Nelson has recently described a new Whip-poor-will from Mexico (Antro- 

 stomus notabilis), based on specimens in the Sunnett collections in the 

 American Museum of Natural History, from Victoria, Tamaulipas, 2 and 

 has revised the names of several North American birds. 3 The Boobv, 

 commonly known as Sulci sulci, is shown to be not the Pelecanus sulci 

 Linn. (1766), but should be called Sulci leucogastra Boddaert (1783). 



1 The Vertebrata of Gorgona Island, Colombia. Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool- 

 ogy, Vol. XLVI, No. 5, pp. 87-102, June, 1905. Aves. By John E. 

 Thayer and Outram Bangs, pp. 91-98. (Papers from the John E. Thayer 

 Expedition of 1904, No. 1.) 



4 Description of a New Species of Whip-poor-will from Mexico. By E. W. 

 Nelson. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. XVIII, pp. m, 112, March 31, 

 1905. 



3 Notes on the Names of certain North American Birds. Ibid., pp. 121- 

 126, April 28, 1905. 



