July, 19o2. I Till,; C()NI)t)R 97 by Dr. Merriam's various publications on tile subject. The fanhal areas comprise (?) the "Humid Coast Fauna," which .is subdivided into a "Northern Humid Coast Belt" and a southern "Santa Cruz District;" (2) the "Cali- fornia Fauna" including the dry "San Joaquin- Sacramento Basin," "San Francisco Bay Region," "San Diegan District." and "Santa Barbara Islands"; {3) the Sierran Fmma," divided into two subfaunas, the "Sierra Ne- vada" and Southern Sierras:" (4} the "Arid Interior Fauna," including the "Great Basin' and "Colorado Desert" subfaunas. The Check-list comprises pages 9 to 74, and the Hypothetical List 75 to 79. This is followed by a full index of names aud synonyms. The list includes the scientific name of each sl)ecies with the original authority and the autfiority for the combination. Each name is preceded by a running list number, and, in parenthesis, the A. O. U. Check-list number. Following the scientific name, on the line below, is the com- mon or Eng ish name. Under each species is given a list of synonyms, tlmt is "all the other names besides the accepted one by which each species has been knowu in California lit- erature." Following this is the 'status' which "is intended to give in a condensed sentence the range, comparative abm?dance and seaaon of occurrence of the species in queqtiox?. The range is usualIv expressed by Zones and Faunal Areas wtlich are outlined iu the accom- panying maps." The list comprises 4% species and subspec:es which are distributed thru the orders as follows: Pygopods, ?7; Longipem?es, 23; Tnbinares, ?7; Stegauopodes, 6; Anseres, 42; Herodione?, ?o; Palud;.colte, 8; Limicol?e, 37; Gallinze, 9; Coinrobie, 4; Raptores, 38; Coc- cyges, 3; Pici, 2?; Macrochires, ?7; Passeres, 239. The Hypothetical List iucludes 33 species. The author's "couservatism' has led him to include all species as well as sul)species that in any way seem worthy of recognition, for, as he states, a subspecies is as imporant as a species (and, the reviewer would add, ofteu much more imporant in bringing to light facts of distribution, migration routes, and the effect of environments}. Despite the oft repeated 'regrets' of lay ornithologists, and the objec- tions of those scientists whose knowledge comes by inspiration rather than from specimens, these finely sillit subspecies exist in nature aud are the very factors which make the avifmma of California the most 1)erptexing and likewise one of the most interesting in all of North America. We heartily agree with our foremost systematist, Mr. Ridgway, that the best in- terests of science are subserved by prosecuting the present methods of splitting to a logical conclusion. Not a few of the forms accepted by Mr. Grin- nell have been excluded from the' A. O. U. Check-list, and likewise a few appearlug in this standard work have been omitted from the California Check-list. Probably we have no reason to hope for nomenclaturat stability until systematic ornithology has ceased to progress. The present paper is the most important work on California ornithology that has ap- peared in recent years.--X. K. F. OBERHOLSER'S REVIE%V OF THE HORNED LARKS (?f'OC. (?.r, ,?,. ?. M. ,X[V?_?tne 19o2 , pfi. ,?o/-,?S3, fill. XLIII-XLF, maps 1-IF)- This paper strikes us as a model of detailed sys- tematic work. Points of nomenclature seem to be worked out beyond question, and the standard of nameable races appeals to us as quite conservative enough. For the present, at least, we ought to be justified in accepting Mr. Oberholser's conclusions as decisive. As affecting California, several important changes are made. The subspecies we have beeu calling chrysolwma is renamed actia, the former name proving exclusively applicable to a distinct Mexican form. What we have known as arenicola from the southeastern deserts is separated from the more eastern forms as a new race, ammophila. A new race is also described from the vicinity of Yuma and is called leucan- siplila. A Rocky Mountain form, leucola?ma, is recorded from the east-central border of the State iu winter. All the rest of the races are as given in our "Checklist of California Birds," making, all together, eight distinct horned larks occurring in California. From a more general point of view Mr. Ober- holser's paper is of decided interest. While Henshaw in x884 recognized by name eight different horned larks from North America, and D?-:ght in x89 o distinguished eleven forms from the stone region, Mr. Oberho'ser's studies lead him to recognize no less than twenty- one different forms, all of which he treats as subspecies of Otocoris alpeslris. This growing umuber is partly accounted for by an increase of available material, and also is significant of the rapid development of our analytical facul- ties. We can but await the results of the next Otocoris-monographer's work with especial in- terest. As Mr. Oberholser states in the present paper, ahnost infinite division is possible, and he might have easily doubled the number of races admitted. What will be the degree of difference recognized twelve years hence? There is one practice in this paper which seems to us open to question. To select a case for illustration, Mr. Oberholser gives Stockton as a station for leucolrema based on one (or more) winter specimens. Now may not this individual, showing an aggregate of characters uearest leucolcvma, be not simply an individual extreme of, say, merrilli; which occurs in num- bers iu the same locality at the same season? The author plainly states that individual and "local" variation within the range' of a well- (leftned race may produce extreme types more different from each other than the average of that race is from the average of another of an eutirely separate range. Is there not danger of denoting such extreme individuals by the names of similarly looking subspecies when their real affinities are not with those races at all? It is very evident that mistakes of this kind would lead to wrong deductions in regard to migratory movements, and distribution in general, which is aftcr all where the chief value of distinguishing geographical races comes in.--J. G.
