1 66 Recent Literature. 



In the comparison above made between the catalogues of 1S59 anc ^ 1SS1, 

 based on that given by the author of the later catalogue, there is no in- 

 timation that the geographical limits of the two are not the same, which, 

 however, is not the case, the later catalogue embracing the peninsula of 

 Lower California and the islands Socorro and Guadalupe, off the 

 western coast of Mexico, not included in the former. These islands fur- 

 nish 11 species and 3 subspecies, and Cape Saint Lucas 8 (22 new names 

 in all), of the 226 additions; and there are, besides, 5 of Giraud's " Six- 

 teen Species of Texan Birds" included which were not given in the earlier 

 catalogue, reducing the number of actual additions from within the same 

 geographical limits to 199. As said above, this number of additions is 

 certainly surprisingly large, and one doultless little anticipated by orni- 

 thologists twenty years ago. 



It may be further observed in this connection that of the recent additions 

 20 are from Greenland, 9 from Alaska, and 2 from Greenland and Alaska 

 together. A few others are pelagic, and 38 are from near our southern 

 border, chiefly from the valley of the Rio Grande and Arizona. 



In respect to the geographical limits of the area treated in the present 

 catalogue, the author tells us that it includes Greenland and the whole of 

 North America down to the United States and Mexican boundary, besides 

 '• the peninsula of Lower California, and the outlying islands of Guada- 

 lupe and Socorro, the latter in latitude iS° 35'. and about 240 miles off the 

 coast of northwestern [i.e., southwestern] Mexico, the former in latitude 

 29 , and 230 miles southwest from San Diego. Guadalupe and Socorro, 

 like Lower California," continues our author, " are included for the reason 

 that their zoological relationships are much closer to North America, as 

 usually (but arbitrarily) restricted, than to the tropical coast-region of 

 western Mexico, their avian fauna in particular being decidedly of 'Nearc- 

 tic,' affinity with the exception, so far as known, of only two species- — a 

 Polvborus peculiar to Guadalupe and a Conurus found both in Socorro 

 and in western Mexico. Indeed, the greater part of Mexico itself (all, in 

 fact, except the narrow coast-region, or tiara calienta, and the lowlands 

 of the southern portion) belongs, ornithologically as well as geographi- 

 cally, to North America, as might easily be demonstrated did space per- 

 mit; but the enlargement of our field to its proper limits would be quite 

 impracticable at the present time. For the surrender of this our rightful 

 territory, however, we have compensation in the fact that the arbitrary line 

 which we have drawn (». e., the United States and Mexican boundary from 

 the Gulf of Mexico to the mouth of the Colorado) gives a comparative sta- 

 bility to the list which a greater southward extension of the area, with 

 indefinite limits, would render impossible" (op. cit., pp. 7i 8). Audubon's 

 " Synopsis " included " the vast regions extending from the northern con- 

 fines of Mexico to the Polar Seas"; Baird's "Catalogue" of 1858, on 

 which that of 1859 was based, was a list of the birds of " North America, 

 [occurring] north of Mexico," but included a number of Mexican species 

 which were, however, especially distinguished in the list as extralimital ; 

 Coues's "Check List" included North America "north of the present 



