IfO Recent Literature. I An 



Auk 

 ril 



points, but, says Mr. Ridgway, "the material is still far from adequate 

 for a satisfactory treatment of the subject, immense areas of South 

 America and considerable portions of Central America being absolutely 

 unrepresented." One of the results is the discovery that "three very 

 distinct forms of the analis section of the genus occur in Costa Rica," 

 and that the form usually referred to F. analis is really not that species 

 at all, but F. nigricapillus Cherrie, MS., here for the first time described. 

 Of the 12 species recognized by Mr. Ridgway 10 were represented in the 

 material under examination. The provisional name Formicarius nigri- 

 frons glaucopectus is proposed for "three Guiana birds" which appear to 

 differ from true nigrifrons of the Upper Amazon. The probable inter- 

 gradation of a number of the forms here treated as species is intimated. — 

 J. A. A. 



Stejneger on Japanese Birds. 1 — Of the forty odd species here com- 

 mented upon eight are given as new to the avifauna of Japan, and five are 

 described as new to science. The latter are sEstrelata longiroslris, 

 Columba taczanoivskii. Accipiter flattens, Locustella kondoensis and 

 Emberiza ciopsis ijimce. In commenting on Oceanodroma markhami 

 (Salv.) Dr. Stejneger refers incidentally to O. melania (Bon.), consider- 

 ing that "the two Mexican birds, the type and the [Cape St. Lucas] 

 specimen in the National Museum" as "true O. melania." But Mr. 

 Ridgway (see above, p. 169) has since made the Cape St. Lucas bird 

 (No. 13,025, U. S. Nat. Mus.) the type of his recently described Ocean- 

 odroma toivnsendii. (Cf. Ridgway, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XVI, 1893, p. 

 687.) 



Dr. Stejneger has also an important note on sEstrelata brevipes (Peale), 

 in which he claims that sE. brevipes is not a synonym of sE. leucoptera 

 (Gould), as commonly supposed ; on the other hand, Procellaria torquata 

 Macgillivray (i860) he finds to be a synonym of Procellaria brevipes 

 Peale (1848). He also finds that the bird previously recorded by him as 

 ^E. leucoptera (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XIV, 1891, p. 490) is the AZ. 

 hvpoleuca Salv., as shown by recent examination of authentic material. 

 There are also a couple of pages of critical observations on Tungipicus 

 kizuki and T. k. seebohtni, and much criticisms of Mr. Seebohm's views 

 on the nomenclature and relationships of Japanese birds. — J. A. A. 



Richmond's Notes on Nicaraguan Birds. 2 — So many lists of tropical 

 birds are based on the collections of natives or travellers having little or 

 no knowledge of ornithology, and are therefore accompanied only by 



1 Notes on a Third Instalment of Japanese Birds in the Science College Museum, 

 Tokoyo, Japan, with Descriptions of New Species. By Leonhard Stejneger. Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus. XVI, 1893, pp. 615-638. 



2 On a Collection of Birds from Eastern Nicaragua and Rio Frio, Costa Rica, with 

 Notes; and a Description of a Supposed new Trogon. By Charles W. Richmond. 

 Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XVI, 1893, pp. 479-532. 



