r g" * I Recent Literature. 6 1 



riguez. The Columbae proper, or the existing Pigeons, are separated 

 into five families, namely: (i) Treronidae, (2) Columbidae, (3) Peris- 

 teridae, (4) Gouridae, (5) Didunculidae: Only the Columbidae and 

 Peristeridae are represented in the New World. The Treronidae, or Tree 

 Pigeons, are separated into three subfamilies and 19 genera, and number 

 about 190 species, 75 of which are referred to the genus Ptilopus and 43 

 to the genus Carpophaga. The Columbinae, mainly restricted to the 

 Old World, number 100 species, of which more than half are referred to 

 the single genus Cohunba. The Peristeridae embraces seven subfamilies, 

 36 genera, and some 250 species, only about 70 of which are American 

 and the rest, as well as the Gouridae (6 species) and the Didunculidae 

 (1 species), belonging to the Old World. 



Prof. Salvador! appears to have done his work with great care and 

 thoroughness, and has thus placed all ornithologists under a deep debt 

 of gratitude. In nSatters of nomenclature he of course takes some liber- 

 ties, or at least what would be so considered on this side of the water 

 (cf Auk, IX, p. 278, 279). It is hardly consistent, however, for him to 

 accept Tartar tartar (ex Colamba tartar Linn.) on p. 396 while he 

 rejects Zenaida zenaida (ex Colamba zenaida Bon.) on p. 382. We of 

 course would not expect him to permit Columbigallina, "a long, badly 

 constructed name," to supercede Cham<epelia, though having eleven 

 years priority. 



For the genus of late currently recognized under the name Rngyptila 

 he prefers the preoccupied name Leptoptilu; but there seems to be a name 

 which should supercede Engyptila (Sundevall, 1S72) ; namely, Salvadori's 

 own name Homoptila which has a year's priority .' This same genus gives 

 rise also to several other much to be lamented changes of nomenclature, 

 since our author finds that Colamba erythrothorax Temm. and Knip, said 

 to be from Surinam, is in all probability an African species identical with 

 Aplopelia larvata (Bon. ex Temm. and Knip). At all events, it "cannot 

 be identified with any of the known species of the genus Leptoptila," and 

 hence the South American bird so long known as Leptoptila erythrothorax 

 becomes Homoptila reichenbachi (Pelz.). Another case, affecting a 

 North American species, is that of our Engyptila albifrons (Bon.), Prof. 

 Salvadori finding that the type of L. albifrons Bon., in the Paris Museum, 

 •'is undoubtedly a specimen of L. Jamaicensis." Hence another name 

 becomes necessary for the species so long and almost exclusively known as 

 Leptoptila (or Engyptila) albifrons, and Salvadori takes for it brachyptera 

 Gray, a nomen nudum, used by Gray in 1856 for Mexican specimens of this 

 species, still extant in the British Museum. Hence the name for our 



1 Homoptila Salvad. Atti. R. Ac. Sci. Tor. VI, 1871, p. 131. Type Homoptila de- 

 cipiens Salvad., 1. c. = Leptoptila ochroptera Pelzeln, 1870. 



Engyptila Sundevall, Meth. nat. Av. disp. Tent. 1872, p. 156 = Leptoptila Swain, 

 (preoccupied), type, Columba rufaxilla Rich, and Bern. 



