May, I9Ot I THE CONDOR 85 PACIFIC COAST AVIFAUNA NO II is a neatly composed "List of the Land Birds of Santa Cruz County, California." The author, R. C. McGregor, has not only drawn from his own field observations, but has also incorporated the notes of several others who have collected in the county. All available published ac- counts are made use of, as well; so that we may consider this list to enumerhte all the species ever found within the 'cot/nty. The authori- ties quoted are always care?fully ci. ted in foot- notes, while pleasing conserv.atism is shown in the treatment of doubtful records. The anno- tations are mostly brief, consisting of uesting and migration dates, comparative abundance, distribution, etc. The nomenclature piesented in this paper strikes one as too much 6f an impr0ement on the A. O. U. Checklist. Nearly '?ery lately proposed change is adopted without questJoe. The discrimination by name of such c!o. sely allied "genera" as Nullallornis and Horizop?s seems to us rather more of a burden than con- venience. We also note that there is a con- fusing instability in the use of vernacular names. The millenium of perxnanency in nomenclature seems further off than ever! The "Introduction" includes a brief but valuable account of the "Fanual Position of Santa Cruz Cruz County," by W. K. Fisher. ?lvifauna ?Vo. ]! is certainly an important ad- dition to the ornithological?tliterature of the State.--J. G. So staid an ornithologist as Richard C. M?- Gregor has, for a time, forsaken his tray's ?/f bird skins, the scalpel and the rule to pay tri- bute to Cupid. Ou Wednesday, April IO, Mr. McGregor was united in marria, ge to Mrs. Edith M. French of Palo Alt% the ceremony being performed in the presence of a feve in- timate friends in Sau Fraucisco. Miss. Josie Hart attended the bride, while Chas. M. Ma?a? non acted as groomsman. Mr. McGregor's orhithological confreres extend to him and his bride a goodly measure of well wishes, aod trust that his already active work in ornithology will be augmented by this acquisition of a help- meet. That the zealous oruithologist is sometimes misjudged by an unsympathetic public, Don- aid A. Cohen, the well-known Alameda . orni- thologist can testify. Toward the lat{er part of March, in compauy with a fish-basket of generous dimensions, MrS' Cohe4? and his brother, a camera artist, wheeled through the town of Haywards, en route to the aerie of a Prairie Falcon in the near-by bills. It so hap- pens that the trout season in California opens on April I, and a watchful peace officer, con- cluding that a fish-basket thus early in the season augured evil, followed the naturalists a warm, lengthy and interesting chase, only to have the utility of the fish-basket to the oolo- gist explained to him most courteously at the end of the chase! Ornithologists will hail with satisfactiou the announcement that the Smithsonian Institu- tion will complete the Life Histories of North American Birds, begun by the late Major Chas. E. Bendire who completed two volumes before his death. Dr. W. L. Ralph, Honorary Cur- ator of the Department of Oology and a close personal friend of Major Bendire,. will have. charge of the work and has issued requests for notes on the life history and nesting habits qf A. O. U. species and subspecies No. $x 4 to 63 inclusive, which willembrace the third volu? of thissuperb work. Dr. Ralph's field ex- perience doubtless renders him the most available person to take up the uncompleted work of Major Bendire, and he should be ac- corded every assistance by field workers in the West who possess, in some cases, almost ex- clusive notes concerning many little-known species. THE PROPER NAME FOR THE I?ADIAK SAVANNA SPARROW.
? Bqnapar.te?,s ?asserculus anthinus is
.?from "Kacliak, Rhssian America:" Compte Rendu, Dec. 1.853, p. 920. It is compared With ?asserc?dus Maudinns, described on p. 918 from "California," as being very similar but with more slender beak, head suffused with y'el10x?, and beneath pale rufescent, more spot- ted. It has been suggested that the. lo- calities of anthinus and alaudinus'might ?have'beeh, transposed (Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, Hist. N. Am. ?ds.'?I, I874, P. 539, foot-note.); but this idea is re- futed by Ridgway (Proc. U.S. N.M. VII, i884, p. 5?7, foot-note). However inapplicable Bonaparte's description may be to the race breeding on Kadiak Island, :'?he fact that the type ostensibly came from there seems to 'make it desirable to use Bonaparte's name instead of xanthophrfs proposed bY.me in the CON?)OR (III, Jan. I9O?, p. 2i).. The Kadiak Savanna Sparrow therefore becomes ?tmmodramus sand- .wic?he.n?is anthinus (Bonaparte). ,. Jos?EPH GRINNELL.
