Mr. Chas. Oldham gave an extended account of the breeding of the Black-necked Grebe (Podiceps nigricollis).
Mr. E. C. Stuart Baker discusses the races of Alcedo meninting of which he recognizes six. A. m. coltarti (p. 39), from Saddya, Assam and A. m. scintillans (p. 38), Bankasoon, are described as new.
Dr. Hartert proposed Aegithalos caudatus pyrenaicus for a new race recently described in ‘Novitates Zoölogicæ’ but inadvertently not named.
Mr. Chas. Chubb described: Sclerurus mexicanus certus (p. 41) Guatemala, Volcan de Agua; S. m. macconnelli (p. 41), Ituribisi River, British Guiana; S. m. peruvianus (p. 41), Yurimaguas, east Peru; S. m. bahiæ (p. 42), Bahia, Brazil; and the new genus Poliolæma (p. 42), for Myrmotherula cinereiventris (Scl. & Salv.).
Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club. CCXXXIX. January 29, 1919.
Mr. Stuart Baker described as new, Penthoceryx sonnerati waiti (p. 47), Ceylon. Dr. Hartert; Serinus buchanani (p. 50), Maktan, East Africa. Mr. Chas. Chubb; Dendrocincla bartletti (p. 50), Chamicuros, east Peru; D. fuliginosa wallacei (p. 52), Para, Brazil; Xenops genibarbis cayoensis (p. 52), Cayo, British Honduras.
British Birds. XII, No. 7. December, 1918.
The Moults and Sequence of Plumages of the British Waders. By Annie C. Jackson.—Northern Phalarope, Stilt, Avocet and Godwit. Concluded in the next number, which contains the Curlew, Snipe and Woodchuck.
Avicultural Magazine. X, No. 3. January, 1919.
Colour Change in the Plumage of Birds. By Dr. V. G. L. Van Someren.—A most important reply to a paper by Dr. A. G. Butler which claimed color change in a Weaver Bird (Pyromelana) and referred to Turacus as a good illustration of the passing of pigment up the vanes of fully formed feathers. The author states that numerous experiments with the crimson feathers of the latter genus from both skins and living birds failed to show any loss of color. Similar experiments in the Philadelphia Zoölogical Garden, it might be added, resulted in the same way. In regard to the Weaver, all Dr. Van Someren’s birds effected the change by molt as might be expected, and they ate many of the feathers which accounts for the lack of cast feathers in many accounts of supposed color change. These observations should settle this vexed question.