484 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



looked by Dr. Coues ? Is it possible that he has not read that 

 masterly monograph of Prof. Steenstrup which has now been 

 translated both into French and German* ? We fear this is the 

 case^ as we do not find even an allusion to it. But to return 

 to nomenclatural difficulties, in which this family is scarcely sur- 

 passed by any. Dr. Coues restricts Uria to the group containing 

 Colymbus gnjlle, Linn., and its allied species, and places the 

 group containing C. troile, Linn., in the genns Lomvia of Bi*andt. 

 In the first part of this arrangement be is possibly right ; but in 

 the last we suspect he is not. Dr. Malragren considers (J. f. 

 0. 1865, p. 394) he is justified in referring the birds we com- 

 monly know as " Scouts " " Willocks " or " Guillemots " {pur 

 sang) to Alca ; and we think it would puzzle any one to bring 

 forward any valid argument against this association, except that 

 it is an innovation. Dr. Coues draws up antithetically the dif- 

 ferent structural characters of Uria and Lomvia; and, by whatever 

 names we speak of these groups, we do not hesitate to say he is 

 quite right in separating them. It seems to us, however, that 

 in defining the species belonging to the former he has not been 

 quite so happy. An attempt in this Journal (Ibis, 1865, p. 519) 

 to diagnose four species has escaped his notice; and in re- 

 fusing to recognize Uria mandti, he asserts that it has "been 

 extensively quoted as a synonym of, or employed to designate, 

 U. columbaj" which we humbly think is an error. Certainly 

 neither Brandt (Bull. Sc. Acad. St. Petersb. 1837, p. 346) nor 

 Bonaparte (Comptes Rendus, 1856, p. 774), on whom he chiefly 

 relies, supports his statement. The former makes no mention 

 whatever of U. coluraba, but, giving no habitat for it, includes 

 U. mandti on Lichtenstein^s authority as a good species. Now 

 Lichtenstein (Verz. Doubl. p. 88) refers to Mandt's "Dissertatio 

 de itinere Grcenlandico " whence we may fairly conclude, though 

 we have never seen the work, that this last species comes from 

 Greenland, where U. columba, admittedly, is not found. Bona- 

 parte on the other hand quotes U. columba as a synonym of U. 

 grijlle, while he also recognizes U. mandti as distinct. How, 

 then, can our friend assert, as he does, that this last " name as 



* Cf. Ibis, 18fi5. p. 228, and 1868. p. 342. 



