Allen on the Maximilian types of South American birds

(1)

3 86

^Recent Literature. [October

tions in other features; so that while thespecimens

may

^be

somewhat

arbitrarilydividedinto series on generalsize, oronthe form ofthe bill, the important variations inotherfeatures are not correlated with

them

but presentall sorts ofcombinations of characters. Indeed, division on either size alone or color alone, or exclusively on the form of thebill,

cannotbe

made

satisfactorily, since there is no point at which asepara- tion can bemade."

Part IofMr. Allen's paper isdevoted toageneral discussion ofindivi- dual variation, with special reference, of course, to the genus Rlainea and the

Chapada

specimens in particular. Part ^II consistsofareview of the species and subspecies, based onthe material examined, the

"E.

pagana-albiceps group" receiving

most

attention.

Of

E.

pagana

several subspecies are recognized: E.

pagana

(Licht.) proper from Eastern South America, north toTrinidad; E.

pagana subpagana

from Central America and Mexico; E.

pagana ma

rtinica (Linn.)fromthe Antilles andCozumel, ^to which Mr. Allen refersE. cinerascens Ridgw. from Old Providence; and E.

pagana

albieeps (D'Orb.

&

Lafr.) from "the

An-

dean region, from

Colombia

and Ecuador southward, including Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, theextreme southern part ofBrazil,and theregion thence southward to thestraits ofMagellan." RegardingtheAntillean form, Mr. Allen notes that "birds fromdifferent islands present

much

variation,"andthat "it isprobablethat large series fromdifferent islands,

when

compared, will be found to present slight average differences, as in case of other birds of similar distribution"; but he adds that at presentlackof material renders an attempttodiscriminate such forms im- practicable

We

trust the necessary material

may

soonbe placedin Mr.

Allen's hands,inorder that he

may

be able to complete the

work

which he has so ablybegun.

—

R. R.

Allen ontheMaximilian

Types

of South

American

Birds.

—

In apaper of 68 pages, Mr. Allen has givenacomplete list of the Maximilian types of South

American

birds in the

Museum

of Natural History,

New York

City,*the

names

of Maximilian's

new

(actualorsupposed) speciesbeing cited under their equivalent current names, the orderofarrangement being thatof Sclaterand Salvin's'Nomenclator

Avium

Neotropicalium.'

The

catalogue has to do with "only the South

American

birds, and

more

especially with the types of the species describedas

new

by the Prince in his 'Reise nach Brasilien'and 'Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte von Brasilien,'" inwhich works "about160 speciesweredescribedasnew, of which about three fourths are still represented in the Maximilian Collection by the original or 'type' specimens." Altogether about 1S3 Maximilian

names

arediscussed, the list including others beside the spe- cieswhich he describedasnew.

The

whole

number

arearranged,atthe endof the paper (pp. 273-276), in a

most

convenientand useful 'Con-

*

On

theMaximilianTypesofSouth American BirdsintheAmerican

Museum

of NaturalHistory. Bull.Am.Mus.Nat. Hist,,Vol.II,No.3.ArticleXIX, December, 1889,pp. 209-267,

(2)

1890.] Recent Literature.

^^7

cordanceand Index,' "inthe order in which they standin his 'Beitrage,' witha referencetothe

volume

and pageof the 'Reise' or'Beitrage'where they were first described," while "in the second

column

is given the equivalent

name

under which theyare treated in the present paper,the figures at theextreme rightreferringto thepagewherethespecies iscon.

sidered."

The

paper is an extremely important one, and in itspreparation the authorhasperformed agood work,forwhichstudents ofSouth

American

ornithologywillbe grateful.

—

^{R. R.}

Dionne's Catalogue of the Birdsof

Quebec* — The

writer modestly expressesa hopethat hisworkwill be of

some

useasaguideto the

young

ornithologists ofQuebec. This isevidentlyitschiefpurpose,and is one thatcannotfail tobe

amply

fulfilled.

The

Catalogue followstheclassifi- cationand nomenclatureoftheA. O. U. Check-List,andgivesalso

—

^asan aid in referencetoearlierwriters

—

^the

^names

^and

numbers

borne by each speciesin the check-listsof Baird, Coues,and Ridgway. Following this

comes

ageneralized statement ofthe bird's distribution,adapted from the A. O. U. Check-List, together with information as to its occurrence, abundance,times ofappearance,etc., in theProvinceof Quebec.

Of

^the

273 species and subspecies recorded, the following

seem

noteworthy:

Megalestris skua,

Larus

brachyrhynchus, Puffiiius citierens,

Anas

strep- era,

Ardea

ccerulea, Otocoris alpestris firaticola^, Pica pica kudsonica,

Ammodramus

caiidacutussubvirgatits, Pipilo erythroplitlialmits, Piraiiga rubra. It is tobe regrettedthat in recording raritiesMr.

Dionne

does not alwaysgivefull particularsand,in

some

of thesecases,that thespecimens were notidentified by

some

ornithologist of unquestionable authority.

The

author justlyregrets the scantiness of the dataat his

command,

and, doubtless,

more

field

work

in his

own

neighborhood would have led

him

tochange

some

statements, especiallyas to the abundanceof certain species. Nevertheless hegivesus

much

valuableinformation,and abook that promises toserve so well the purpose forwhich itwas written

may

well be spared too searchingcriticism.

—

C. F. B.

Proceedingsofthe Linnaean Society.!

— The

Linniean Society has re cently issued a brief 'abstract' of its Proceedings for the year ending

March

7, 1S90. "A. largeproportion ofthe papers read beforethe Society- have been publishedin'TheAuk,' 'Forestand Stream,'and the 'Bulletin of the

American Museum

of Natural History,'"and areonlymentioned here.

The

bulk ofthe abstract is

made

upofbriefitems, chiefly ornitho- logical,and

many

of

them

of

much

importance.

The

only paper of anv

| [cut] | Quebec | des Presses k Vapeurde_J.Dussault, | PortDauphin[ 1889. 8vo. pp. 119.

tAbstract|of theProceedings ofthe | Linnaean Society |of|

New

York | forthe YearendingMarch7,1890. 8vo.pp.10.