Book News and Reviews 



219 



in Wisconsin, and probably also in Illi- 

 nois, although a specimen of Americana 

 has been recorded from the southern part 

 of the latter state. 



These slips are mere details, however, 

 and do not detract materially from the 

 general excellence of the work, which 

 has evidently been carefully done, and 

 will be a very useful handbook to the 

 students of Illinois and Wisconsin birds. 

 — W. DeW. M. 



The Ornithological Magazines 



The Auk. — 'The Auk' for July opens 

 with a suggestive paper by Spencer 

 Trotter on 'The Geological and Geo- 

 graphical Relations of the Land-Bird 

 Fauna of Northeastern America.' Charles 

 W. Townsend presents an interesting 

 synopsis of our knowledge concerning 

 'The Use of the Wings and Feet by Diving 

 Birds,' and also a summary of recent 

 occurrences of the Carolina Wren in New 

 England, where this bird is becoming 

 increasingly common. Charles W. Rich- 

 mond completes his 'Reprint of the Orni- 

 thological Writings of C. S. Rafinesque,' 

 begun in the preceding issue, and of his- 

 torical interest also is 'Some Original 

 Manuscript Relating to the History of 

 Townsend's Bunting,' contributed by 

 Ruthven Deane, to whom we are indebted 

 for so many valuable papers of this char- 

 acter. A. H. Felger writes at some length 

 of the water birds of portions of Weld, 

 Morgan and Adams counties, Colorado; 

 Walter P. Taylor records the capture, at 

 Nicasio, California, of a Hummingbird 

 of the Selasphorus ' floresii' type, believed 

 to be a hybrid between 5. alleni and 

 Calypte anna, and comments pertinently 

 on the 'Weight of Generic Characters in 

 the Trochilidse.' 



The 'Fifteenth Supplement to the 

 American Ornithologists' Union Check- 

 List of North American Birds' is the 

 final report of the A. O. U. Committee 

 before the publication of the revised 

 edition of the Check-List, which will 

 probably appear during the coming win- 

 ter. Of special interest to readers of Bird- 



Lore will be the changes which have been 

 made in the common names of our birds, 

 and we therefore reprint that section of 

 the report in full, as follows: "In addition 

 to the list of changes given below, it was- 

 decided to omit 'American' as a part 

 of a vernacular name, and to add 'Euro- 

 pean' where necessary. Also, to abandon 

 the adjectival form of geographical 

 names, . . . ." 



LIST OF NAMES 



OLD NEW 



St. Domingo Grebe Mexican Grebe 

 Dark-bodied Shearwater Sooty Shearwater 

 Stormy Petrel Storm Petrel 



Tropic Bird Tropic-bird 



Anhinga Water-Turkey 



Man-o'-War Bird Man-o'-war-bird 



Widgeon . European Widgeon 



Steller's Duck Steller's Eider 



Lesser Snow Goose Snow Goose 



Ross' Snow Goose Ross's Goose 



White-bellied Brant Brant 

 Whooping Swan Whooper Swan 



European Blue Heron European Heron 

 Snowy Heron Snowy Egret 



Greater Snipe Great Snipe 



Bartramian Sandpiper Upland Plover 

 Ring Plover Ringed Plover 



Little Ring Plover Little Ringed Plover 



Surf-Bird Surf-bird 



Partridge Quail, in Nos. 292-296 



Canada Grouse Spruce Partridge 



Prairie Hen Prairie Chicken 



Sage Grouse Sage Hen 



Florida Wild Turkey Florida Turkey 

 Black Merlin Black Pigeon Hawk 



Richardson's Merlin Richardson's Pigeon 



Hawk 

 Green-crested Flycatcher Acadian Flycatcher 

 American Raven (No. 



486) Western Raven 



Bicolored Blackbird Bicolored Red-wing 

 Tricolored Blackbird Tricolored Red-wing 

 House Finch California Linnet 



Leucosticte (Nos. 523- 



526) Rosy Finch 



Snowflake (Nos. 534- 



535) Snow Bunting 



Sandwich Sparrow Aleutian Savannah 



Sparrow. 

 Savanna Sparrow* Savannah Sparrow 



Bryant's Marsh Sparrow Bryant's Sparrow 

 Belding's Marsh Sparrow Belding's Sparrow 

 Townsend's Sparrow Townsend's Fox Spar- 

 row, and the word 

 ' Fox ' is added in the 

 names of all the sub- 

 species of No. 585. 

 Louisiana Tanager Western Tanager 



Parkman's Wren Western House Wren 



Turner's Chickadee Yukon Chickadee 

 Wilson's Thrush Veery. 



"The word 'Bewicks' is to be omitted 

 from all the sub-species under No. 719, 

 except the first. 



*Named from the city of Savannah. 



