330 Recetit Literature. [y" t k 



wonderful marine aviary — second to none of the natural features of 

 California." In 1SS4 it is said 300,000 eggs were gathered and the market 

 was glutted, while the present year only 91,740 have been taken. Com- 

 paratively few birds are allowed to breed and such merciless persecution 

 can but result in extinction. The commercial value of these rookeries will 

 doubtless prevent their protection from purely sentimental grounds, but 

 if it can be shown that the present course will end in the destruction of 

 the egg industry, it might be possible to secure the enactment of a law 

 which would protect the birds for at least the latter half of the nesting 

 season. — F. M. C. 



Ridgway on New Species and Subspecies of Birds 1 . — In the three 

 papers here cited, none of which bears date of publication, Mr. Ridgway 

 describes Geothlypis flaveolatus from near Tampico on the Gulf coast of 

 Mexico, a form which, strangely enough, is most closelv related to G. 

 beldingi of Lower California; Geospiza pachyryknea, G. fatigata, Camar- 

 kyachus bindloei, C. compressirost ris, and C. incertus from the apparently 

 exhaustless Galapagos, and Peucedramus olivaceus aurantiacus from 

 Guatemala. — F. M. C. 



Oberholser on Two New Subspecies of Dryobates. 2 — -Comparison of a 

 series of 200 Downy Woodpeckers has impressed Mr. Oberholser with the 

 differences in size and color existing between specimens from the South 

 Atlantic and Gulf States and those from Alaska and northern British 

 America, and he therefore separates these extremes under the names 

 Dryobates pubescens meridionalis (Swainson) and Dryobates pubescens 

 nelsoni (Oberholser) respectively, leaving Dryobates pubescens as a tran- 

 sition form occupying the intervening region. — F. M. C. 



Richmond on Mexican Birds. 3 — This is a nominal list of 58 species, 

 with the number of specimens of each, received by the National Museum 



1 1 . Description of a New Species of Ground Warbler from Eastern Mexico. 

 By Robert Ridgway, Curator of the Department of Birds. Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., XVIII, p. 119. 



2. Preliminary Description of some New Birds from the Galapagos Archi- 

 pelago. Ibid., p. 293. 



3. Description of a New Subspecies of the Genus Patcedramus, Coues. 

 Ibid., p. 441. 



2 Description of Two New Subspecies of the Downy Woodpecker, Dryobates 

 pubescens (Linnaeus). By Harry C. Oberholser. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVIII, 



1895, P- 547- 



3 Partial list of Birds collected at Alta Mira, Mexico, by Mr. Frank B. Arm- 

 strong. By Charles W. Richmond, Assistant Curator of the Department of 

 Birds. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVIII, 1896, pp. 627-632. 



