VOl 'l906 m ] Recent Literature. 233 



In my note-book I find this entry under date of Apr. 8, 1902: "... .1 

 observed an interesting thing in connection with another Waxwing, 

 separate from this flock. On a bare branch, a few yards away, in a little 

 swampy bottom, I noticed an attenuated object, perfectly motionless, 

 that soon took the colors, but not the shape, of a Cedarbird. It was so 

 very thin and elongated that I thought either that it was the dried body 

 of a bird that had hung there for weeks, or that a particularly murderous 

 Shrike had impaled it by the neck, and the stretching had resulted froln 

 that. But as I came very close, and got a side view, I saw that the bird 

 was alive, but was adopting the ruse described by Chapman, in his book 

 on bird photography, as being employed by Ardetta exilis. The neck was 

 stretched straight up, the bill nearly vertical, the crest depressed; and 

 the general appearance of the bird made it obvious that it was trying, by 

 straightening and greatly attenuating its body, to simulate as closely as 

 possible a dead branch. When I was about five feet away, it fluttered 

 off with some difficulty, evidently wounded." — Andrew Allison, Ellis- 

 ville, Miss. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Ridgway on the American Families of Oligomyodian Passeres. 1 

 ■ — In a paper of ten pages Mr. Ridgway reviews the taxonomic history of 

 these groups, and gives a 'Provisional Key to the Families of Mesomyodi, ' 

 followed by a revision of the families Tyrannidae, Pipridse, and Cotingidse, 

 with the result that a dozen genera heretofore commonly placed in Tyran- 

 nidae are now either actually removed to other families, or their closer 

 alliance to other families is suggested. Several, as Sirystes, Hylonax, 

 Elainopsis, Tyrannulus and Ornithion, are transferred to the Cotingida?, 

 four or five others are thought to have Formicarian affinities, and one. 

 Lawrencia, is thought to agree essentially with the Vireonidse. As the 

 internal structure of very few of the Mesomyodian forms is known, the 

 arrangement here proposed is necessarily tentative, being based mainly 

 on external characters. — J. A. A. 



1 Some Observations concerning the American Families of Oligomyodian Passeres. 

 By Robert Ridgway. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. XIX, pp. 7-16, Jan. 

 :29, 1906. 



