304 Recent Literature. hus 
Oberholser on Birds from Central Asia.1— Dr. W. L. Abbott, formerly 
of Philadelphia, has earned an enviable reputation as a scientific and 
enthusiastic collector, who for a number of years past has devoted him- 
self to natural history exploration, visiting successively parts of East 
Africa, the Seychelles, Madagascar, the Indian Archipelago, and southern 
and Central Asia in the prosecution of his work. The United States 
National Museum has been the recipient of his generous and extensive 
contributions of excellent material to various departments of zoology, 
but especially to mammalogy and ornithology, thus opening a new field 
of research to American naturalists, whose opportunities heretofore have 
largely been restricted to American material. 
Mr. Oberholser’s paper relates to a small collection of birds from 
Cashmere and Ladak, numbering 142 specimens and representing 62 
species. Totanus totanus curhinus is described as new. Saxicola mon- 
tana Gould (not Koch) is renamed Saxicola oreophila, and Perdsso- 
spiza (nom. noy.) replaces Pycnorhamphus Hume, the latter being preoc- 
cupied. Several pages are given to a description of a series of 18 
specimens of Buteo ferox, which seems to illustrate all the principal 
phases of plumage of this exceedingly variable species. The collector’s 
notes from the fresh specimens, including measurements, are a valuable 
feature of the paper. —J. A. A. 
Oberholser on a Collection of Birds from Madagascar.* — A small col- 
lection of birds made by the Rev. James Wills, chiefly near Imerina, in 
the east central part of the island, numbering 57 species, represented by 
110 specimens, and purchased by the United States National Museum, 
forms the basis of the present paper. All are referred to previously 
described species, but the exact data respecting time and place of collec- 
tion of the specimens, and Mr. Oberholser’s critical annotations on many 
of them, and on various points of nomenclature, render the paper of 
much value. —J. A. A. 
Oberholser on Birds from Santa Barbara Islands, California.* — This 
is a list of the birds collected by Mr. Clark P. Streator under the auspices 
of the Biological Survey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, April 
1 Notes on Birds collected by Doctor W. L. Abbott in Central Asia. By 
Harry C. Oberholser. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus, Vol. XXII, No. 1195, pp. 205- 
228. April, 1900. 
* Catalogue of Collection of Birds from Madagascar. By Harry C. 
Oberholser. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XXII, No. 1197, pp. 235-248. 
April, 1900. 
3 Notes on some Birds from Santa Barbara Islands, California. By Harry 
C. Oberholser. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XXII, No. 1196, pp. 229-234. 
April, 1900. 
