142 RecurLiterature. [Jan.Auk

Sixteenquarto plates, many of them in colorsand all from drawingsby Dr. Wilson, illustrate the headsand feet of many birds and flight posesof variousTubinares sketched from life. Forty speciesof birds were collected or observed,including two Penguins, three Skuas, twenty-two Petrels, seven Albatrosses,two Boobies and two Frigate-birds. Beside Dr. Wilson's notes which are reproducedverbatim and a list of the specimens,data are presented on many additional specimensin the British and Tring Museums and there are full discussionsof the relation- ship of speciesand plumagesso that the report becomesa most important contributionto Antarctic ornithology. The perplexingphases of plumage presentedby many of the Tubinaresare discussedand much light thrown upon their significance. The authors deserveour thanks for the care that they have taken in the preparation of this publication. American ornithologistswill recall that Dr. Wilson, well known for his previousAntarctic report onthe birds of the "Discovery" expeditionand other papers, was a great-nephewof Dr. Thomas B. Wilson one time presidentand patron of the Academy of Natural Sciencesof Philadelphia and donor of many of its most important collectionsnotably the Gould collection of Australian birds and the famous Rivoli collection.--W. S.

Vertebrates of the Lassen Peak Region.--Dr. Grinnell and his associatesof the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology have put forth another massive volume • concerned with the vertebrate fauna of California. This time they deal with northern California covering a section 24 x 124 miles in extent cutting through the Lassen Peak region from east to west. Numerous trips by membersof the museumstaff to various parts of the section have resulted in a collection of 3592 specimensand voluminous notes,which form the basisof the report. The objectsof the work as out- lined by the authors are to determine the speciesof vertebratespresent in the region, their relative abundance, their habitat distribution and factors governing it, their annual cycle of activity and "the determination of a way to analyze vertebrate communitiesand successions." The factors accountingfor habitat limitations of terrestrial vertebrates as determined by the authors are (1) inherent structural peculiarities, (2) vegetation, (3) nature of groundsurface, (4) presenceof water, (5) altitude, (6) physiographicalrelation to surroundingterritory, (7) presenceof ab- senceof other animals. The thirty-seven habitats of the region they group under aquatic, low vegetation, brush-land,wood-land, forest, rock-land, and human made. These are discussedin great detail with numerous photographic illustrations. We then pass to a considerationof the life zones of the area with lists

• ¾ertebrate Natural tIistory of a Section of NorShern California through the Lassen Peak Region. By Joseph Grinnell, Joseph Dixon, Jean M. Linsdale. Univ. Calif. Publ. in Zool., Vol. 35, pp. i-v-t-1-594, 181 text figs. Berkeley, Calif., 1930. Price $6, vo.19111 x.wm J 148 of characteristictrees and shrubs and vertebrates, with maps of actual records of distribution within the Lassen section. Another part of the report discussesbird populationwith many lists of speciesshowing the actual numbersof each seenin a given time and area. The main portion of the work consistsof a very fully annotated list of all of the 387 forms of vertebrates arranged systematically. The amount of detaileddata containedin this publicationis enormousand not only the California naturalist but the student of the broader problemsof animal distribution and ecology will find it a veritable reservoir of in- formation. We have but one criticism of the work and that is the nomenclature employed.We fullyrealize the radicald•erence of opinionon various phasesof this porplexingsubject, but personallywe are always ready to sink our opinion when a maiority of any Committee appointed to deal with the subject is against us, as we feel that uniformity is far more im- portant that the exploitationof personalopinion. We refer, be it under- stood,to generalor popular usage. In a technicalsystematic discussion one is of courseat liberty to state his opinionsand upholdthem by argu- ment. It is the Englishnames of the presentreport to which we take ex- ception. These follow Dr. Grinnell's personal views although they are the nameswhich the generalpublic is supposedto useand by whichthey must refer in other works. The latter almost without exceptionadhere to the A. O. U. 'Check-List'and the Commltte• in chargeof the new edition of th/s work at the almost unanimousrequest of all who have been con- suited will adhere as closely as possibleto the names now in use. Dr. Grinnell howeversets up an entirely original set of vernacularnames which not only confusethe readerbut, when usedalone as they often are, make it difficult for one to know what bird is meant. "Slender-billad White- breastedNuthatch," "Red-belliedRed-shouldered Hawk," "SierraNevada OregonJunco" and "CaliforniaAcorn-storing Woodpecker" are, to usea slangexpression, a "mouth-full" and quite impossiblefor labellingpur- posesor easyquotation. Alsowith only the 'Check-List'and other stand- ard worksto refer to how is the generalreader to know what the "Ladder- backed Woodpecker"or the "American Water Pipit" may be? Why not let the Latin namesindicate relationShip and changethem as we mustin accord with our code of rules, but at least let us enjoy the stability of commonnames and adhere to those that have a respectable literature back of them. Theseremarks are merely a sideissue and in no way affectour admiration for Dr. Grinnell'sexcellent work or the splendidvolume that he and his staff have given us.--W. S. Rivisre's •Birds of Norfolk. '--In none of the English countieshave birds been studiedso continuouslyor so intensivelyas in Norfolk. From the time of Sir ThomasBrowne, in the seventeenthcentury, down through a long line of able local ornithologists--thePagers, Stevenson, Southwell,