296 Recently published Ornithological Harks. 



(see ( Auk/ xx. p. 272) as to Asia being the (t proper name " 

 of the Great Horned Owls. Our old friend " Bubo vir- 

 yinianus " consequently disappears in favour of " Asio 

 magellanicus" which is now divided into 17 subspecies, 

 spread over the American continent. Of these, A. in. 

 mesembrinus from Costa Rica, A. m. melanurus from Mexico, 

 A. m. icelus from California, A. m. lagophonus from Wash- 

 ington and N. Oregon, A. m. heterocnemis from Labrador, 

 and A. m. algistus from Alaska are now described as new 

 subspecies. 



45. Oberholser on the Wrens of the Genus Troglodytes. 



[A Review of the Wrens of the Genus Troylodytes. By Harry C. 

 Oberholser. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mils, xxvii. pp. 197-210. Washington, 1904.] 



The genus called Troglodytes in the present paper (as in 

 the American ' Cheek-list ; ) is not, it must be recollected, 

 the exact group to which our well-known European Wren 

 belongs, but a purely Neogaean group, of which the type is 

 troglodytes aedon, the •' House- Wren " of X. America. The 

 * Check-list ' uses " Anorthura" as the generic name for 

 Troglodytes hy emails, which is a close ally of our European 

 Wren : but the fact is that the two groups arc barely separ- 

 able generically, and, in our opinion, may be united under 

 " Troglodytes:' * 



According to Mr. Oberholser the American group of Wrens 

 allied to T. aedon, to which he restricts the generic name 

 Troglodytes, contains about 37 species and subspecies, which 

 range all over the New World down to Cape Horn {T. horn- 

 ensis). Mr. Oberholser assigns, probably quite correctly, 

 several West-Indian species that have hitherto been placed 

 in Thryothorus to the present genus. The widely-spread 

 T. musculus is subdivided into 15 subspecies, of which 

 the following three are described as new : — T. musculus 

 acosmus from Chili, T. m. atopus from Santa Martha, and 

 T. m. enochrus from Peru. Troglodytes browni (Bangs, Pr. 

 N.E. Zool. CI. iii. p. 53, 1892) is elevated to generic rank 



* Cf. remarks, Ibis, 1902. p. 527. 



