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Recent Literature. [October 



tions in other features; so that while the specimens may be somewhat 

 arbitrarily divided into series on general size, or on the form of the bill, 

 the important variations in other features are not correlated with them 

 but present all sorts of combinations of characters. Indeed, division on 

 either size alone or color alone, or exclusively on the form of the bill, 

 cannot be made satisfactorily, since there is no point at which a separa- 

 tion can be made." 



Part I of Mr. Allen's paper is devoted to a general discussion of indivi- 

 dual variation, with special reference, of course, to the genus Rlainea 

 and the Chapada specimens in particular. Part II consists of a review of 

 the species and subspecies, based on the material examined, the "E. 

 ■pagana-albiceps group" receiving most attention. Of E. pagana several 

 subspecies are recognized: E. pagana (Licht.) proper from Eastern 

 South America, north to Trinidad ; E. pagana subpagana from Central 

 America and Mexico; E. pagana ma rtinica (Linn.) from the Antilles 

 and Cozumel, to which Mr. Allen refers E. cinerascens Ridgw. from Old 

 Providence; and E. pagana albieeps (D'Orb. & Lafr. ) from "the An- 

 dean region, from Colombia and Ecuador southward, including Peru, 

 Bolivia, Paraguay, the extreme southern part of Brazil, and the region 

 thence southward to the straits of Magellan." Regarding the Antillean 

 form, Mr. Allen notes that "birds from different islands present much 

 variation," and that "it is probable that large series from different islands, 

 when compared, will be found to present slight average differences, 

 as in case of other birds of similar distribution"; but he adds that at 

 present lack of material renders an attempt to discriminate such forms im- 

 practicable We trust the necessary material may soon be placed in Mr. 

 Allen's hands, in order that he may be able to complete the work which 

 he has so ably begun. — R. R. 



Allen on the Maximilian Types of South American Birds. — In a paper 

 of 68 pages, Mr. Allen has given a complete list of the Maximilian types 

 of South American birds in the Museum of Natural History, New York 

 City,* the names of Maximilian's new (actual or supposed) species being 

 cited under their equivalent current names, the order of arrangement 

 being that of Sclater and Salvin's 'Nomenclator Avium Neotropicalium.' 

 The catalogue has to do with "only the South American birds, and 

 more especially with the types of the species described as new by the 

 Prince in his 'Reise nach Brasilien' and 'Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte 

 von Brasilien,' " in which works "about 160 species were described as new, 

 of which about three fourths are still represented in the Maximilian 

 Collection by the original or 'type' specimens." Altogether about 1S3 

 Maximilian names are discussed, the list including others beside the spe- 

 cies which he described as new. The whole number are arranged, at the 

 end of the paper (pp. 273-276), in a most convenient and useful 'Con- 



* On the Maximilian Types of South American Birds in the American Museum of 

 Natural History. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist,, Vol. II, No. 3. Article XIX, December, 

 1889, pp. 209-267, 



