■] Recent Literature. 



113 



even more clearly by summaries at the end of the paper, in which tables 

 it is always desirable to present birds in their several categories of perma- 

 nent residents, summer visitants, spring and fall migrants, winter visi- 

 tants, and the ■' irregular" or stragglers. 



We note, as of interest in considering this locality : Poliopila coerulea, 

 Oforornis agilis, Coccygus americmius, Ulula cinerea, Falco hlandtcus, 

 Falco peregrt7ius, Cathartes aura, Herodias egretta, Florida ccerulea, 

 Actodromas bairdi, Ancylockilus subarqiiatus, Recurvirostra atnerica?ia, 

 Rallus elegatis, R. longirostris crepitans, and other rarities; and not only 

 on account of their intrinsic interest, but as showing that the locality must 

 have been pi-etty carefully gone over. 



The article is fairly well printed, but, aside from typographical errors, 

 we are surprised that Mr. Brown should have overlooked the peculiar 

 orthography to be found here and there, which may, however, result from 

 "authority" or personal predilection. We do not understand the use of 

 the term Sfizella monta7ia (Forst.) Ridg. Forster certainly never 

 described or named our Tree Sparrow, properly speaking — he simply 

 mistook it for the European Passer tnontana ; and no nomenclatural avail- 

 ibility is conferred by the fact that the two birds belong to different modern 

 genera. 



We wish that the author had not deemed it advisable to suppress the 

 original pagination of the article as a part of the Proceedings, and the 

 number of the volume of the latter in which it appeared ; for, as the pam- 

 phlet stands, we have no means of properly citing its original edition. 

 — E. C. 



RiDGWAY ON THE Tree-creepers.* — Mr. Ridgway states that after a 

 careful consideration of much material and all that has been written on the 

 subject, he has been "forced to the conclusion that the C. mexicana itself 

 cannot stand even as a race, or else it becomes necessary to recognize a 

 larger number of races than have [has] usually been claimed for the spe- 

 cies. In other words, it is simply a question of whether geographical var- 

 iations of form and color are to be completely ignored as a factor in the 

 genesis of species, or whether they should receive due consideration in 

 connection with this important subject." Accepting the latter view as the 

 more scientific one he proceeds to characterize 7 races as susceptible of 

 definition, 3 of which are for the first time named. These races are as fol- 

 lows : I. familiaris Linn., Scandinavia; 2.i costce Bailly, Central 

 Europe; 3. ^rzV/««/crt subs, nov., British Islands ; 4. r«/« Bartr., Eastern 

 North America; 5. montana subs, nov., Middle Province of North Amer- 

 ica; 6. occidentals suhs. nov., Pacific coast of North America ; 7. mexi- 

 cana Gloger, Guatemala and Southern Mexico. — J. A. A. 



« Critical Remarks on the Tree-creepers (Certhia) of Europe and North America. 

 By Robert Ridgway. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1882, pp. 111-116. July 8, 1882. 



