Recently published Ornithological Works. 457 



but many allusions to birds will be found in this most inter- 

 esting narrative. Mr. Pratt^s route was up the Yangtze to 

 Ichang, and thence through the gorges of the great river to 

 Sui-fu. Here the Yangtze was left, and its northern con- 

 fluent, the " Min,^' ascended to Kia-ting, whence the route 

 was by land to Ta-tsien-lu, well known as the headquarters 

 of the Roman-Catholic missionaries in Northern Szechuen. 

 Ta-tsien-lu is on the eastern confines of Tibet, and only a 

 few days' journey from Moupin, where Pere David made his 

 remarkable collections. Here Mr. Pratt made excursions to 

 elevations of 14,000 and 15,000 feet, and met with Cros- 

 soptilon tibetanum and Lophophorus Vhuysi near the snow- 

 line. Living specimens of both these splendid Pheasants were 

 obtained and brought home safely to the Zoological Society's 

 Gardens. Mr. Seebohm has already given us an account of 

 Mr. Pratt's collection of birds (Ibis, 1891, p. 370), of which 

 a nominal list forms one of the appendices to the present 

 work. 



82. Ridgway on the Genus Sittasomus. 



[Notes on the Genus Sittasomus of Swainson. By Kobert Ridgway. 

 Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xiv. p. 507.] 



Mr. Ridgway has examined 44 specimens of the difficult 

 genus Sittasomus, and has come to the conclusion that " the 

 actual number of recognizable forms is at least double that 

 recognized " in the fifteenth volume of the British Museum 

 Catalogue. Mr. Ridgway makes out six species, besides the 

 quite distinct S. stictolcemus, Pelz., of which there are no 

 specimens in the U.S. National Museum. These he calls 

 SS. erithacus, chapadensis (sp. nov.), amazonus, sylvioides, 

 aquatorialis (sp. nov.), and griseus. Mr. Ridgway has, of 

 course, a right to his opinions, but we are not obliged 

 to agree with him. Having had the advantage of being able 

 to examine the type of S. olivaceus (Max.), which is inac- 

 cessible in Europe, he is, no doubt, correct in referring that 

 name to S. erithacus. 



