172 



Recent Literature. 



r Auk 

 L April 



second, lYristcropodcs, consisting of the Megapo, ; des, the Curassows, and 

 Guans; (3) Opisthocomi, with the Hoatzin as itsL sole representative; (4) 

 the Hemipodii, composed of the Bush-(^uails or ' y t I cm 1 pods. The number 

 of speck's recognized is 426, besides 25 additio >nal subspecies, the true 



Gallinaceous Birds alone (thai is, excluding the 1,25 Mcgapodes) number- 

 ing about .300 species. These last are referred to,., the two families Tetra- 

 onida- and I'liasianiche, the former with ii gemera and 26 species, the 

 latter with 59 genera and about 260 species. S;ivs Mr. Grant, "There 

 appeals to be no real line of demarcation bct^veen the true Pheasants 

 (Phasianidee) and the Partridges (Perdicinae), the two groups merging 

 gradually into one another in such forms as oyimdusicola, Ptilofachys, 

 and Galloper dix " Resort is made to the shap.je of the wing, and espe- 

 cially the length of the first primary as compared 1 with the tenth, but even 

 this usually "well-marked character breaks dowl I, and in order to artifi- 



cially separate these two groups it is necessary 



oiularv Or siipplcmen lary characters, Mich as the 



The present volume compares favorably with t 



the Series, and is of course executed after the sat 

 Of the trinomial form of nomenclature being ex 



names published prior to Linnseus's \i\\\ edi 



various North American forms is amusing rathe: 

 it seems about time to expect a more intelligent 

 Of subspecies and "climatic variation" than i 

 volume. In some instances forms that American 



subspecies, and sometimes rather poor ones at tl 



full species, while in other cases they are reduced to synonyms, or 



allowed to stand as subspecies, as the authoi 

 material ami lack of information as to the pb 



Mo have recourse to sec- 

 'length of the tail." 

 he preceding volumes of 

 t ne general plan, the use 

 eluded, and also specific 

 lion. The treatment of 



1 han ii ritating, though 



conception of the subject 



s shown in the present 



writers regard as merely 



iat, are given the rank of 



s comparatively limited 

 ysiographic relations of 



localities seem to indicate. The author's standpc >int and line of reasonin 

 can he made clear to American readers by the f 

 his footnote (p. 87) under Bonasa umbellus: " 

 great climatic variation. . . . The various Varieties have been cata 

 logued under no less than four different names I either as species or sub- 

 species, by the latest American authors ; but as all t hese variet ies are to 

 be found among a series of specimens from Nlew York alone and are, 

 therefore, not even dependent on locality, we consider it needless to 

 employ in.. re than one name for all, especial 1 y as the four recognized 



forms grade imperceptibly into one another." 



We are surprised to find the term Ortyx used for our Rob-whites in 

 place of ColiHUS, ami without a word of comment, after it has been so 

 clearly shown by Dr. Stejneger (Auk, II, Jan. 1S185, p. 44) that Ortyx was 

 employed by Oken in 1S16 for the genus Turm'nl and also by Illiger, in a 

 slightly different Eorm, in the same sense as early as 181 1 . Ortyx is, 



therefore, clearly a synonym of Tur/itw ami is untenable as used by 

 Stephens in [819, leaving ColimtS as the proper name of the genus for 

 which Mr. Granl still retains the name Ortyx. — J. A. A. 



