106 Recent Ornithological Publications. 



To Mr. Lawrence we are indebted for copies of two papers 

 published in the Philadelphia Proceedings'*, as well as 

 one from the New York 'Annals' t« In the first are described 

 Vireosylvia atripennis (from the little island of Sombrero, in the 

 West Indies, said to resemble the well-known V. altiloqua, but 

 to be a stouter species, and especially distinguished by its black 

 quill-feathers), Corethrura guatemalensis (whose locality is shown 

 by its specific name), diU^ Ar amides axillaris, from New Granada. 

 The second of Mr. Lawrence's papers contains descriptions of 

 Dacnis ultramarina, Saltator intermedius, and Cassicus vitellinus, 

 all from the Isthmus of Panama, as well as of Ereunetes occiden- 

 talis, which appears to be the Pacific form of E. pusillus, and, 

 among other characters, difi"ers from that well-known bird in 

 having larger and more decidedly marked spots on the breast, 

 and a longer bill. Recent investigations have served to show 

 that there is a good deal of difference observable between the 

 Scolopacida of the two coasts of America ; but, with the expe- 

 rience of Messrs. Swinhoe and Blyth (who have been most 

 carefully and, we will say, with the best of good reasons uniting 

 under one designation the bearers of very distinct names) 

 before us, we would submit that some of these differences are 

 hardly such as should be deemed specific. Mr. Lawrence's third 

 paper contains diagnoses of seven new species, all Neotropical — 

 three Tanagers, a Cuckoo [Coccyzus julieni, from Sombrero), and 

 three Humming-birds. 



With the greatest respect for the feelings which have prompted 

 Mr. Cassin, we yet trust we may not be thought ill-natured, 

 when we make a clean breast of it, and express our regret at 

 hearing that there is " a very considerable number " of hitherto 

 neglected authors, whose claims to public attention he is about 

 to urge in a series of papers communicated to the Philadelphia 

 Academy. The first number of the ' Fasti Ornithologise' J has 



* Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 April 1863, pp. 106, 107, and April 1864, pp. 106-108. 



t Annals of the Lyceum of Natural History, New York, vol. viii. June 

 1864. 



X Fasti Ornithologia^. By John Cassin. No. I. Philipp Ludwig 

 Statius Miiller. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philadelphia, October 1864. 



