Sept., 1910 FROM I*IELD AND STUDY 175 until closely prest, when i't would fly a short distance. . After being chased up the beach some 200 y?rds it would fly out around the pursuer back to its original remtezvous. This procedure would be repeated over and over. It is thus apparent that the stranger was a beach-comber in habits, just as are the song sparrows in the summer home of M. rn. caurina, in Alaska, and quite different in habits from the resident race of the tlumboldt Bay region. I am very nmch indeted to Mr. Clay fbr the above information, and especially for the privilege of putting his capture on record, it being, as far as I know, the first [or California.--J. GRINNELL. Red Phalarope in Southern California in Winten--In the May number of THE CONDOR H. S. Swarth mentioned the scarcity of winter records for the Red Phalarope (iPhalaropus ulica- flus) in Califbrnia. In November and December, 1907, C. B. Linton and myself found this species very abund- ant around Anacapa aml Santa Cruz Islands. This note was publisht by Mr. Linton and may be found in THE CONDOR, Vol. X, 1908, p. 126. This was probably overlookt by Mr. Swarth. Many specimens of this Phalarope were taken at this time and are now in the collections of Mr. Linton and myself. During the last week of November there were thousantis of the birds anti some remained well into December. ? do not believe, however, that they staid thru the entire winter.--G. W?LLETT. PUBLICATIONS REVIEWED The New A. O. U. Gheck List.?--Now that the Third Edition of the Check-List of North American Birds has actually appeared the student may at last discard with safety his worn-to-tatters 1895 copy, interlined, crost-out, emended, and procure for himself a clean new copy. Having done so, if he be of progressive tendency, mindfixl ever of the signs of advance in his field, he will at once begin again to interline, erase, re-instate, amplify. And herein lies the enormous scientific value of such a periodic compendium as the Check-List: . it constitutes a basis for departure anew. During the fifteen years which have elapst?ltogether too long a time to allow between revized editions of a work} of this sort---since the publication of the Second Edition, numerous additions and dhanges in status relative to North American birds have resulted froin the constant activity in their study. By means of frequent supplements, printed in The ?4uk, the A. O. U. Committee on Nomenclature has kept the public posted on those of the proposed changes of which it has approved. To the student who has watcht this series of supplements, therefore, the new Check-List offers no startling innovations on this score. Since the classification and sequence employed in the Third Edition is practically the same as used in the Second, the only remaining really great point of improvement is in the much more full anti accurately exprest statements of the ranges of species. The adoption of the m?)dern method of expressing animal distribution in terms of life zones leads to a conciseness of statement not before achieved. Anti the interpolation of a colored map of the Zones of North America, compiled by C. Hart Merriam and his assistants of the Biologi- cal Survey, gives to the reader unfamiliar with this method an invaluable key to the situation. It is a recognized difficulty to bild a statement of range consistent with all known facts and yet keep it within the small space necessitated by the practical limits of a hand~book. Loose statements in the ranges of species, as given in the Check-List, appear to be relatively rare. A few are apparent: The range of Junco hyernalis pinosus is stated to be "Coast strip of San Mateo and northern Monterey counties, California." There is thus no indication that the.species is just as well known to occupy suitable ground in the intervening territory (Santa Cruz and Santa Clara counties). It is stated that A/lelospiza lincolni lincolni "winters from San Jacinto Mountains" etc.; we were not aware that the bird wingered in any of our mountains. The breeding range of iPasserculus roslralus roslralus is given as "unknown, but probably from about San Pedro, California, to" etc.; this is most emphatically nol probable, as the coastal localities of southern California are well known to have been pretty thoroly searcht without find- ing any conclusive evidence of the breeding of the species within the state. The breeding range of a species cannot be considered as establisht by one or two instances of occurrence of individual birds in summer. (continued on page 177) ? Check-List I of } North American Birds I Prepared by a Committee [ of the I Amer/can Ornithologists' Union Third edition (Revised) [ -- [ Zoological Nomenclature is a means, not an end, of Zoological Science [ -- I New York American Ornithologists' Union I 1910; 8 vo., pp. 1-430, 2 maps. Price $2.50.
