Recently published Ornithological Works. 345 
archaic forms, and thus alloAv of the tracing of the various 
modifications. Such types as the Gallinaceous birds and 
Chauna lie at the base of the series with numerous regular 
folds quite like those of a crocodile. Thence the changes 
that have taken place can be followed out in several directions, 
and with great ease to the reader on account of the useful 
diagrammatic lines of ascent figured on the author^s plates. It 
must be gratifying to him, as it is reassuring to us, to 
find that the scheme recommended does not do violence to 
old-established views of classification. Thus the Petrels 
are placed near to the Storks and Herons as W. A. Forbes 
urged they should be ; and the Gulls are put near the 
Charadriiform birds. It is largely the absence of all sen- 
sational reshufl[ling of the groups which leads us to believe 
that Dr. Mitchell has tapped a new source of information, 
which will serve, perhaps even better than anything that has 
gone before, to help us to the proper arrangement of birds. 
61. Nelson on new Mejcican Birds. 
[Descriptions of a new Genus and eleven new Species and Subspecies 
of Birds from Mexico. Bj E. W. Nelson. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 
xiv. pp. 169-175.] 
Mr. Nelson describes as "^ new species " Crax chapmani 
from Yucatan, Attila mexicanus from Tabasco, Myiopagis 
yucatanensis from Yucatan, Stelgidopteryx ridgwayi from 
Yucatan and Mexico, and Troglodytes peninsularis from 
Yucatan, besides several subspecies. A new genus ^^ Nyctia- 
grius" is made for Caprimulgus yucatanicas Hartert (Cat. B. 
xvi. p. 575). 
62. Osgood on the Birds of the Queen Charlotte Islands. 
[Natural History of the Queen Charlotte Islands, By Wilfred II. 
Osgood. N. American Fauna, No. 21, pp. 7-50, pis. i.-v. Washington, 
1901.] 
After an introductory account of the islands, which lie 
off the coast of British Columbia, and details of their physio- 
graphy, Mr. Osgood proceeds to tabulate the species of 
Vertebrates which are found there, furnishing in conclusion 
notes on those of most impojtauce and a bibliography of the 
