Recentli/ published Ornithological If urk.<i. 177 



two forms are found in the same distributional area, and 

 Mr. Bangs considers B. brunnescens can only be regarded as 

 a colour variation. The same conclusions hold good in the 

 case of Ixobrijchus neoxenus (Cory), which is only a colour 

 phase of /. exilis, and Ardea herodias xoardi Ridgw. and 

 A. iviirdemanni Eaird, which bear the same relation to 

 A. herodias occidentalis Aud. 



Among the North American faunal papers, which are 

 generally illustrated with photographs of the scenery of the 

 localities, are those of H. H. Kopnian on the birds of 

 Louisiana ; Geo. Willett on those of Forrester Island, Alaska ; 

 G. F. Simmons on the birds of Houston in Texas ; and 

 S. F. Rathburn on those of Puget Sound on the Pacific Coast. 



Of faunal papers outside North America, Mr. J. C. Phillips 

 writes an accou)it of a desert journey made by him in the 

 spring of 1914 from Suez through the Sinaitic Peninsula 

 to Jerusalem. He was fortunate enough to obtain an 

 example of the very rare Strix butleri, of which only two 

 examples had been previously taken. This species is figured 

 in colour. He also distinguishes as new a Rose-Finch from 

 Petra in southern Palestine, under the name Carpodacus 

 sijnoicus petr<e. 



Mr. R. C. Murphy, who recently went on a whaling voyage 

 to the southern seas, contributes three short papers. A few 

 hours spent on the island of Fernando Noronha, off the 

 coast of Brazil, did not produce anything novel. In a 

 second paper he extends the range of Oceanodroma leucorrhoa 

 southwards into the tropical Atlantic, off Cape Sao Roque, 

 in Brazil. 



A discussion of the history and avifauna of Trinidad 

 Island in the south Atlantic forms the subject of a third 

 paper by Mr. Murphy. He was unable to land on the 

 island, but spent a day fishing from a small boat outside 

 the line of the breakers, and secured a Petrel which he 

 believes to be new, and calls yEstrelata chionophara ; this 

 is the fourth species of the genus described from this island, 

 the others being yE. arminjoniana, yE. triuitatis, and 

 ^. wilsotii, all closely allied in structure and only differing 



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