I 84 Feecent Literature. Asal 
the Ducks in'which there is a marked sexual difference in plumage. This 
post-nuptial plumage ‘‘is mainly restricted to the head, neck, breast and 
scapulars,” and is acquired just prior to the loss of the flight feathers at 
the regular annual post-breeding moult; it is of dull tints, and rather 
loose structure, and is worn for only a few weeks, or during the period 
when the birds are unable to fly, through the loss of the flight-feathers by 
moult. ‘*At such a time,” says Mr. Stone, ‘‘a dull blended plumage 
would naturally be important in rendering the bird inconspicuous and 
thereby protecting it, and such I think is the explanation of this curious 
molt.” Mr. Stone has here for the first time clearly described this tem- 
porary post-nuptial plumage and suggested its réle in the economy of the 
species. As will be noticed later (see p. 186) Mr. Chapman has, independ- 
ently and almost simultaneously, described this plumage in the King 
Eider and the Greenland Eider.—J. A. A. 
Stone on a New Race of Short-eared Owl. — Mr. Stone finds! that a 
series of Short-eared Owls from Point Barrow, Alaska, in Mr. McIlhenny’s 
collection are much paler than birds from Pennsylvania, and on this basis 
he has named the Point Barrow birds Aséo accépitrinus mcilhennyt. — 
Waveko Ne 
Bangs on Colombian Birds. — Mr. Bangs has recently published two 
additional papers on the birds of the Santa Marta district of Colombia, 
based on collections made by Mr. W. W. Brown. The first? relates to a 
small collection made at San Sebastian, in June and July, 1899, at altitudes 
ranging from 6600 to gooo feet, on the opposite side of the Sierra Nevada 
de Santa Marta from the points where his previous collections were made. 
The list numbers 29 species, six of which had not been previously taken 
by Mr. Brown, one of the latter, Acestrura astreans, being described as 
new. 
The second paper® relates to the two species of Hexicorhina found to 
inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta region of Colombia, namely, 
the wide-ranging H. leucophrysand H. anchoreta, the latter here described 
as new, and as living in the higher parts of the mountains, at 11,000 to 
12,000 feet, and above the range of H. leucophrys. —J. A. A. 
Chapman on New Birds from Venezuela, etc.— A small collection of 
‘A New Race of Short-eared Owls. By Witmer Stone. Proc. Acad. Nat. 
Sciences Phila., 1889, p. 478. Separates issued Dec. 29, 1899. 
*On a Small Collection of Birds from San Sebastian, Colombia. By Out- 
ram Bangs. Proc. New Engl. Zo6él. Club, I, pp. 75-80, Dec. 27, 1899. 
*The Gray-breasted Wood Wrens of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. 
By Outram Bangs. /ééd., pp., 83, 84, Dec. 27, 1899. 
