Vol XIVJ General Notes. 409 



Wrens. The nest was constructed of the usual materials — leaves, bark, 

 and grasses — lined with grape-vine bark and hair, and contained two 

 fresh eggs. This is, I believe, the first recorded instance of the Yellow- 

 throat breeding over water, and is indeed surprising, as the nests are 

 usually to be found in dense woods far from water. — Walton I. White- 

 hill, St. Paul, Miiui. 



The Names of Two Mexican Wrens. — It is now generally believed 

 that Baird Avas in error when he identified his Thryothoriis bexvickii leuco- 

 gaster (Baird's Wren, so-called) with the Troglodytes hiicogaster of Gould 

 (Proc. Zool. Soc, 1836, 89; Tamaulipas). This belief was first expressed 

 by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin (Nomencl. Av. Neotrop., 1873, 155), who 

 identified Gould's bird with Cypkorkiniis pusilliis Scl. (Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 1859, 372) = Urofsila leucogastra Scl. & Salv., 1873. Accordingly Messrs. 

 Salvin and Godman (Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, I, 1880, 95) have renamed 

 Baird's bird Thryothoriis bairdi. It appears to me that these authors, by 

 beginning their history of Baird's Wren with the ' Review of American 

 Birds,' 1864, instead of the 'Birds of North America,' 1858, have over- 

 looked the fact that Baird had Gould's type of Troglodytes leucogaster ^ 

 On page XV of the 'Birds of North America,' Baird says that he received 

 from Gould about 150 species of birds, including some from Mexico, and 

 on page 363 he says that Gould's specimen of Troglodytes leucogaster 

 from Tamaulipas agrees perfectly with others in the Smithsonian 

 Museum, — the "others" being the identical specimens which he after- 

 ward (in Rev. Amer. Birds) separated from the typical Thryothoriis 

 bewickii a.s T. b. leucogaster. Gould's type is not included in Baird's list 

 of specimens in the Smithsonian Institution, probably because he intended 

 to return it to Gould. It appears that Messrs. Sclater, Salvin, and Godman 

 did not have Goulds's type of Troglodytes leucogaster (see Biol. Centr- 

 Amer., Aves, I, 78); does it, then, seem reasonable to prefer their deter- 

 mination of Troglodytes leucogaster Gld. to Baird's, who had not only 

 the type of T. leucogaster Gld. but also one of the types of Cyphorhinus 

 pusillus Scl. (see Rev. Amer. Birds, p. 120) .'' Messrs. Sclater and Salvin's 

 opinion concerning the identity of Gould's bird doubtless had its origin 

 in the ill fit of Gould's measurements and the incompleteness of his diag- 

 nosis when confronted with skins of Baird's Wren. Gould's measure- 

 ments do not seem to fit either Baird's leucogaster or Sclater's pusillus., 

 for that matter : 



Troglodytes leucogaster Gld. 

 Cyphorhinus pusillus Scl. \ 



Thryothorus bewickii leucogaster Bd. \ 



Canon XLIII of the A. O. U. Code of Nomenclature provides that " in 

 no case is a type specimen to be accepted as the basis of a specific or 



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