1916 J Recent Literature. ool 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Ridgway's ' The Birds of North and Middle America ' Part VII. i — 



While less bulky than its predecessors Part VII of Mr. Ridgvvay's great 

 work follows them closely in style and execution. As heretofore the foot- 

 notes are replete with synonymy and citations of types and type localities 

 for many extralimital genera and species which render the volume a store- 

 house of information for those working on the neotropical avifauna, who 

 extend their researches beyond the isthmus. For America north of 

 Panama it is, like the preceding parts, a monograph. 



As an illustration of the thoroughness of Mr. Ridg-way's studies, he states 

 on p. 108 that he has examined representatives of all of the American genera 

 of Parrots but Cyanopsitta, specimens of which, by the way, are in the 

 collection of the Philadelphia Academy. 



Most of the new names that he has found it necessary to establish as the 

 work proceeded have been published in the Proceedings of the Biological 

 Societ}^ of Washington and we notice only two in the present volume. 

 CEnanas plumbea chapmahi (p. 325), Gualea, Ecuador; and Zenaidura 

 mac^ura caurina (p. 348), Oregon. Mr. Ridgway's practice of proposing 

 new names in footnotes with not even heavy-faced type to attract atten- 

 tion to them is unfortunate, in view of the trouble that obscurely published 

 names have caused in the past. The latter of these new forms moreover is 

 proposed " provisionally " based on " three very poor specimens," with a 

 " provisional type " designated. The author is surely aware that there 

 is no difference nomenclaturally between ' ' provisional ' ' and other names 

 or types and this Zenaidura m. caurina must rest for all time on an ad- 

 mittedly unsatisfactory type specimen. 



The nomenclature of the North American species differs somewhat from 

 that of the A. O. U. Check-List. Conuropsis carolinensis interior appears 

 as C. c. ludovicianus, the Louisiana bird belongi^ig to the interior race in 

 Mr. Ridg^vay's opinion; Linnaeus however is wrongly cited as the authority 

 for the name. Coccyzus minor minor should apparently be omitted from 

 the Check- List as all the unquestioned Florida birds seen by Mr. Ridgway 

 are C. m. maynardi, while Audubon's specimen, said to be from Florida 

 proves to be C. m. nesiotes. Among the doves the genera Geotrygon and 

 Cohimba are subdivided, our species of the former becoming Oreopeleia, 

 while Columba fasciata and flavirostris fall in Chlorcenas, and C. leucocephala 



^ The Birds | of | North and Middlfe America: | A Descriptive Catalogue | of the | Higher 

 Groups, Genera, Species, and Subspecies of Birds | known to occur in North America,, 

 from the | Arctic Lands to the Isthmus of Panama | the West Indies and other Islands [ 

 of the Caribbean Sea, and the | Galapagos Archipelago. | By | Robert Ridgway, | Curator, 

 Division of Birds. | Part VII. 



Family Cuculidse. Family Psittacidse. Family Columbidae. Bulletin of the United 

 States National Museum. No. 50. Washington: Government Printing Office. 1916. 

 [dated May 5, received May 29]. pp. i-xii^ + 1-543, pll. I-XXIV. 



