476 Recently published Ornithological Works. 
new Genera, and a Monograpli of tlie American Species of tlie Genus 
Ardea, Linn. (Bull. Hayden’s Survey, iv. No. 1, Feb. 5, 1878.)] 
These Studies of Mr. Ridgway^s bear evidence of having 
been carefully considered, and a praisevrorthy attempt is made 
to give characters defining the sections and subsections into 
which the order Herodiones is divisible. Except as regards 
the American forms of the order, Mr. Ridgway^s materials do 
not seem to be so complete as could be wished ; for the impor¬ 
tant Old-World genera Scopus, Anastomus, Balceniceps, and 
others, the author says, are autoptically unknown to him. 
Mr. Ridgway must, we think, reconsider his assignment 
of Eurypyga to the Herodiones ; its points of relationship to 
the Ralli and divergence from the Herodiones are so many, 
that its position near the Rails, so forcibly maintained by 
many authors, seems most worthy of adoption. 
The Ardeidse, or true Herons, are devided into Ardeinse 
and Botaurinse: the former containing fourteen genera, of 
which three are new; the latter two genera. These new 
genera are Dichromanassa, with Ardea rufa as its type, Hy- 
dranassa (no type indicated), and Syrigma, type Ardea sibi- 
latrix. The characters of all these genera are drawn chiefly 
from the form of the ornamental plumes of the adult birds. 
In his monograph of the genus Ardea four American species 
are dealt with. Mr. Ridgway^s remarks on Ardea occiden- 
tails, and its suggested identity with A, wurdemanni, will be 
read with great interest. Those who look forward to the 
synonymy of the future with perplexity will not be much 
encouraged by the array of references Mr. Ridgway produces 
under the heading Ardea herodias. We can only hope that 
such displays as this will soon produce a reaction in favour 
of selecting such references as are really useful, and the avoid¬ 
ance of obvious repetition'^. 
In treating of the American Ciconiidae Mr. Ridgway finds 
it necessary to propose a new generic name, Euxenura, for 
Ciconia maguari, on account of the peculiarities of the rectrices 
All through this paper we notice that to a certain ‘ Catalogus Avium ’ 
is assigned an important place in the synonymy, too important, we 
think, when the mode of compilation of this work is considered. 
