2^4 Recent Literature. [July 



The collection made at the Island of Santa Lucia, West Indies, * num- 

 bers 15 species. Of seven specimens of Cocreba martinicana, Mr. Ridg- 

 way says four have the superciliary stripe wholly white, and three bright 

 yellow passing into white anteriorly, thus showing that his Certhiola 

 finscki is untenable. 



The collection from Abrolhos Islands numbers only five species, all 

 water birds. The Straits of Magellan collection numbers 66 species, and 

 includes a number of specimens of special interest. A species of Geositta 

 is provisionally described as new (G. longipcnnis), its nearest ally being 

 G. antarctica Landb. A specimen of Upucerthia forms the basis of a 

 new species ((J. propinqiui), allied to U. dumetoria. Two examples of 

 Nycticorax lead to the recognition of N. obscurus Bon. as a good species, 

 it having before been merged by Mr. Ridgway with N. nycticorax neevius 

 under the erroneous supposition that alleged specimens of N. obscurus 

 he had examined were the true IV. obscurus, which now proves not to 

 have been the case. 



For the bird usually called Phalacrocorax brasilianus (Gin.), Mr. 

 Ridgway adopts the name P. vigua (Vieill.), he considering Gmelin's 

 bird unidentifiable. He finds P. vigua to be closely allied to P. n/exi- 

 canus, the latter seeming to be "simply a smaller intertropical race of P. 

 vigua, in which case it should be called P. vigua mexicauus" 



The 'Albatross' collection was made by Prof. Leslie A. Lee, naturalist 

 of the expedition, assisted by Mr. Charles H. Townsend and Mr. Thomas 

 Lee.— J. A. A. 



Chapman on the Genus Xiphorhynchus. — In a paper of nine pages, 

 recently published in the 'Bulletin' of the American Museum of Natural 

 History,! Mr. Chapman reviews the Dendrocolaptine genus Xiphorliyn- 

 chus, his work being based on the combined material representing this 

 group contained in the museums of Cambridge, Boston, New York, and 

 Washington, including the types of Lafresnaye's species in the Museum 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History. Nine species are recognized, 

 of which two are described as new, namely, X. dorsoimmaculatus (hab- 

 itat "Cayenne?"), and X. rufodorsalis (ex Corumba, Brazil). X. z>ene- 

 zue.lensis Lafr. MS. is also for the first time described; X. falcularius 

 (Vieill.) is disentangled from X. procurvus auct. (nee Temminck), with 

 which it has been confounded, and various manuscript names of La- 

 fresnaye's are duly allocated by an examination of Lafresnaye's types. — 

 J. A. A. 



♦Scientific Results of Explorations by the U. S. Fish Commission Steamer Alba- 

 tross, No. II. Birds collected on the Island of Santa Lucia, West Indies, the 

 Abrolhos Islands, Brazil, and the Straits of Magellan, in 1887-88. By Robert Ridg- 

 way. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Vol. VII, 1889, pp. 129-139. 



|A Review of the Genus Xiphorhynchus Swainson, with Descriptions of two new 

 species. By Frank M. Chapman. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. II, pp. 153-162. 

 (Published July 5, 1889.) 



