Vol 'i9i9 XVI ] Penaed, Beebe's 'Tropical Wild Life.' 217 



additional observations and investigations may make the full 

 truth of the matter clear. The observations of the winter of 1917- 

 18 were unusual, but it is often by a study of the unusual that the 

 usual is understood. 



REMARKS ON BEEBE'S 'TROPICAL WILD LIFE.' 



BY THOMAS E. PENARD. 



In a previous number of 'The Auk' (1918, XXXV, p. 91), Dr. 

 Witmer Stone reviewed briefly this interesting volume published 

 by the New York Zoological Society, presenting the first season's 

 work at the tropical research station, established in British Guiana 

 under the direction of Mr. William Beebe. The results obtained 

 by Mr. Beebe and his associates are of such interest and importance, 

 and the work in general so deserving of the reviewer's praise, that 

 I feel rather reluctant in offering a few slight corrections. My 

 observations are not intended as criticisms, and I would hardly 

 have thought it worth while to express them, were it not for the 

 fact that the very excellence and authoritative character of Mr. 

 Beebe's book might perhaps have the effect of creating a few mis- 

 leading impressions in regard to some minor matters with which 

 it deals. 



In Chapter VIII Mr. Beebe gives a list of the birds of the Bartica 

 District, in which, for the sake of completeness, he includes some 

 species collected by Whitely at the same place, and listed by Salvin 

 in 'The Ibis' for 1885 and 1886. Twenty-two species are starred 

 to indicate that they are new to the Colony of British Guiana. 

 Of this number, however, at least eighteen have been previously 

 recorded from various localities in the Colony as follows : 



Columba plumbea plumbea Vieillot. — Listed by Salvin (Ibis, 

 1886, p. 173) from Bartica Grove and Camacusa. Percival (Birds of the 

 Botanic Gardens, 1893, Argosy reprint, p. 6) says that it is " unfrequent in 

 Gardens, though a common species." Dawson (Hand-list of the Birds 

 of British Guiana, 1916, p. 51) lists it as a Colonial species. Some of these 



