V0l 19OT VI ] Recent Literature. 209 



The other papers in 'Cassinia' are: 'The Mourning Warbler in Warren 

 County, Pa.,' by Thomas H. Jackson; 'Some Birds of a Maurice River 

 Farm,' by Chreswell J. Hunt; 'Catoxen Cabin on the Ranconcas,' by 

 George Spencer Morris; 'Bird-Life at Catoxen,' by Witmer Stone; 'Three 

 Finds in South Jersey,' by Robert Thomas Moore; 'A List of the Birds 

 observed on the Barnegat Region of the New Jersey Coast in August, 1908/ 

 by Win. C. Braislin, M. D. 



The Club held sixteen meetings during the year 1908, with an average 

 attendance of twenty-two. The officers for 1909 are William A. Shryock, 

 President; Stewardson Brown, Vice-President; Chreswell J. Hunt, Secre- 

 tary; Samuel Wright, Treasurer; Witmer Stone, Editor of 'Cassinia.' — 

 J. A. A. 



Stone's 'A Review of the Genus Piaya Lesson.'— Mr. Stone 1 here 

 recognizes three species — P. melanogastra, P. rutilus, and P. cayana, the 

 latter with 10 subspecies, two of which are described as new. This revision 

 is based on 259 specimens, and, of course, is made from the modern view- 

 point. He refers to a brief review of the group made by the present writer 

 in 1893, pointing out several errors made, as he kindly says, " largely through 

 lack of material," and notes that "he ignored Cabanis's explanation of the 

 true nature of Gambel's macroura," etc. We may here explain that Part 

 IV of the 'Museum Heirnanum,' which contains Cabanis's review of the 

 genus, was not then accessible to us, the copy of the work then available 

 containing only the first three parts; otherwise probably Cabanis's ruling 

 on the type localities of P. macroura Gambel and P. circe Bonap. would not 

 have been 'ignored,' and the consequent errors would have been avoided. 

 It is of interest that Mr. Stone is able to so emphatically confirm Cabanis's 

 opinions on these two important points. 



After reviewing the history of the group, Mr. Stone presents a 'key to 

 the species and subspecies,' followed by the synonymy and a brief descrip- 

 tion of each form. If the forms to which critical reference is made had all 

 been given in the synonymy of the species it would have added to the con- 

 venience of future investigators of the group, and have made clearer the 

 several nomenclatural departures from current usage, all of which seem to 

 be well founded. It may be added that the two new subspecies — P. 

 cayana caucce and P. c. boliviano, — are based on recently acquired material 

 in the American Museum of Natural History. — J. A. A. 



Watson's ' The Behavior of Noddy and Sooty Terns.' 3 — This is the report 

 of observations made by the author at Bird Key, a small island of the Dry 



1 A Review of the Genus Piaya Lesson. By Witmer Stone. Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Philadelphia, Vol. LX, Pt. 3, July-Dec, 1908, pp. 492-501. 



2 The Behavior of Noddy and Sooty Terns. By John B. Watson, Professor of 

 Experimental and Comparative Psychology, The Johns Hopkins University. 

 Papers from the Tortugas Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, 

 Vol. II, 1908 (1909), pp. 187-225, pll. i-xi, and 2 text fig. [Separates not dated, 

 but distributed early in March, 1909.] 



