Recent Literature. 
177 
(which seems not impracticable) to which the accumulated observations 
of past years, together with the reports of each passing season, could be 
sent and elaborated, we should soon be in possession of a sure basis for 
generalization, and not till then can it be expected. The work so ear- 
nestly begun by Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Cordeaux should be a stimulus 
to concurrent action on the part of others, and nowhere are the conditions 
more favorable for systematic work than in the United States. — J. A. A. 
Ridgway on the Nomenclature of North American Birds. — 
Simultaneously with the publication in the last number of the Bulletin of 
Dr. Coues’s “ Notes and Queries ” concerning this subject, appeared a 
paper of similar character by Mr. Ridgway, in the Proceedings of the 
National Museum.* Mr. Ridgway takes as a starting-point Dr. Coues’s 
“Check List,” published in 1873, and formally notices many of the 
changes from the nomenclature there adopted that have been since intro- 
duced, and to some extent adopted, and proposes many additional ones, 
the whole number here receiving attention amounting to upward of eighty. 
Many of these have been duly noted from time to time in the Bulletin, 
and some have even crept into current use, but Mr. Ridgway has done 
good service in collecting these and bringing them into association with 
those newly proposed. The space here available for the purpose is far too 
limited to admit of a detailed notice of even all those that are new, but the 
leading points may be briefly summarized as follows : — Specific names 
changed (taking Coues’s “ Check List ” as the basis), 30 ; f varieties 
raised to specific rank, 15 ; synonyms raised to varietal rank, 2 ; species 
reduced to varieties, 3 ; varietal names changed, 4 ; generic names 
changed, 24 ; new genera proposed, 2 ; new varieties described, 3. As 
already intimated, many of these changes are not new, some of them hav- 
ing been made in 1874, in Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway’s “History of 
North American Birds,” while others were there suggested as likely to 
prove necessary. Not a few have been recently introduced by European 
ornithologists. The more important innovations are the following. The 
Turdus aonalaschJcce of Gmelin is considered as equal to Turdus nanus, 
Baird, and, antedating pallasi of Cabanis, becomes the specific name of 
the Hermit Thrushes collectively, giving to the Eastern form the name 
Turdus aonalaschJcce pallasi , and to the Rocky Mountain form that of T. a., 
auduhoni. The name fasciata for the Song Sparrows again receives in- 
dorsement. Unalaschcensis is adopted for the varietal name of what has 
been recently called Passerella iliaca townsendi. Montana of Forster, ante- 
dating monticola of Gmelin, is adopted for the Tree Sparrow, which there- 
fore becomes .Spizella montana. The generic name Euspiza gives place to 
Spiza, of which latter Mr. Ridgway shows it to be a synonym. The 
* Revisions of Nomenclature of certain North American Birds. By Robert 
Ridgway. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1880, pp. 1 - 16. Published March 27, 1880. 
t These numbers are given as approximate rather than as exact. 
VOL. V. • 12 
