Rerently published Ornithological Works. 165 
for the former is added. The range of each form is care¬ 
fully indicated, but no sort of description is given. 
The scientific names of the species and subspecies have 
all been settled according to the “ Revised Code of Nomen¬ 
clature/'’ published by the Union in 1908. It would be 
impossible, of course, even if it were desirable, to criticise 
these names on the present occasion. But the key to them 
is the terrible word “ Priority.” Now Priority is, no doubt,, 
a very important point. But the claims of Grammar and 
Common-sense should be also considered, and, in some cases, 
that does not appear to have been done. For instance, the 
Red-wing is called a Turdus musicus although the evidence 
that Linnaeus ever intended to give it that name is very 
slight, and universal usage is against it. Again the “ Varied 
Thrush ” of California is named “ Ixoreus” although it has 
been most clearly shown that Bonaparte based that generic 
name on a Tyrant-bird*, Tcenioptera rufiventris. But these 
are very slight defects in a good piece of work, which 
carries the signatures of Allen, Merriam, and Ridgway, and 
will, no doubt, receive the general approval of American 
Ornithologists. 
6. Check-list of North-American Birds abridged. 
[Abridged Check-list of North-American Birds. New York, 1910 
PP . 77.] 
This list contains the scientific and English names of all 
the North-American species and subspecies of Birds recog¬ 
nised in the new (third) edition of the e Check-list. 5 The 
species are numbered from 1 to 768, the subspecies are 
designated by letters (a, b ) c , &c.) attached to the number 
of the species. 
This little book will be very useful for marking off species 
represented in museums and other collections. It is not much 
larger than an ordinary pocket-book, and, therefore, easily 
portable. 
* Cf. ‘ Ibis,’ 1908, p. 190, and 1903, p. 142. 
