Recently published Ortulh.ohxjlcid Worka. 165 



for the former is added. The range of each form is cure- 

 fully indicated, but no sort of description is given. 



The scientific names of the species and subspecies Lave 

 all been settled according to the " Revised Code of Nomen- 

 clature," published by the Union in 1908. It would be 

 impossible, of course, even if it were desirable, to criticise 

 these names on the present occasion. But the key to them 

 is the terrible word " Priority." Now Priority is, no doubt, 

 a very important point. But the claims of Grammar and 

 Common-sense should be also considered, and, in some cases, 

 that does not appear to have been done. For instance, the 

 Red-wing is called " Turdus musicus^^' although the evidence 

 that Linnaeus ever intended to give it that name is very 

 slight, and universal usage is against it. Again the "Varied 

 Thrush " of California is named " Ixoreus'' although it has 

 been most clearly shown that Bonaparte based that generic 

 name on a Tyrant-bird^, Tcenioptera rufiventris . But these 

 are very slight defects in a good piece of work, which 

 carries the signatures of Allen, Merriam, and Ridgway, and 

 will, no doubt, receive the general approval of American 

 Ornithologists. 



6. Check-list of North- American Birds abridged. 



[Abridged Check-list of North- American Birds. New York, 1910 ;, 

 pp. 77.] 



This list contains the scientific and English names of all 

 the North- American species and subspecies of Birds recog- 

 nised in the new (third) edition of the ' Check-list.' The 

 species are numbered from 1 to 768, the subspecies are 

 designated by letters (a, 6, c, &c.) attached to the number 

 of the species. 



This little book will be very useful for marking off species 

 represented in museums and other collections. It is not much 

 larger than an ordinary pocket-book, and, therefore, easily 

 portable. 



* Cf. ' Ibis,' 1908, p. 190, and 1903, p. 142. 



