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Eds. 1965. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton Univ. Press. Pp. X Q- 922 REVIEWS EDITED BY KENNETH C. PARKES The Quaternary of the United States.--H. E. Wright, Jr., and David G. Frey, eds.1965. Princeton,New Jersey,Princeton Univ. Press.Pp. x q- 922, illus., 11 in. $25.00.--Knowledgeis accumulatingvery rapidly in the generalarea of Pleistocene q- Recent (= Quaternary) biogeographyand evolutionary history. This exponential growth resultsfrom the rapid developmentof improvedmethods of dating orga.nic matter (radiocarbon,potassium argon, etc.), in pollen core analysis,in glacial and extra-glacial stratigraphy, in oceanography,and in other areas, as well as from acceleratedprosecution of classicalpaleontological and biogeographicanalyses. Con- sequently,review papers and symposiagrow out of date almost as rapidly as they are published. Resulting from the seventh and latest Congressof the International Association for QuaternaryResearch (INQUA), at Boulder,Colorado, in 1965,the presentmassive volume supersedesall of its predecessorsfor the area in question (which, despite the title, variously relatesto most of North America). Each review paper is complete in itself with its own bibliography; there are terminal indices to all. Emphasis is divided among Parts I-IV (Geology; Biogeography;Archaeology; Miscellaneous). While general background is always useful, Part II is obviously of the greatest immediate interest to ornithologists. It is divided among"Phytogeography and Palynology" (pollen analysis), "Zoogeog- raphy and Evolution," and a summarizing"Pleistocene Nonmarine Environments" (by E. S. Deevey, Jr.). Under the second sub-heading are chapters on mammals (by C. W. Hibbard and four other active authors), birds ("Avian Speciation in the Quaternary"; pp. 529-542, by Robert K. Selander), amphibians (by W. Frank Blair), reptiles (by Walter Auffenberg and William W. Milstead), fishes (by Robert R. Miller), insects (by Herbert G. Ross), and a variety of additional invertebrate groups and topics by other leading authors. Arian biogeographersand evolutionistsshould welcome these reviews of the historiesof other groups, which are, in most if not all cases,better known than those of birds. This is well brought out by Selander'scomprehensive review (184 titles in bibl.) and cautious, balanced conclusions,which emerge as the present standard for this subject and geographicarea. This well made and well proof-read volume, however expensive,is a must for active biogeographers,especially since reprints of the separatesections seem to have been somewhatsparingly distributed among the often multiple authors.--ROBERTM. MENGEL. Communication and relationships in the genus Tyrannus.--W. John Smith. 1966. Allen Press, Lawrence, Kansas. Nuttall Ornithological Club, Publication no. 6. 250 pp., 3 tables,51 figures. Cloth $6.00, postpaid (obtainablefrom the Nuttall Ornith. Club, c/o Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts).--Nearly everyone agreesthat the current classificationto the tyrant- flycatchers,which compriseone of the largestand most heterogeneouspasserinc families, is unsatisfactory. Zimmer's unpublishedmanuscript, based on a classicalanalysis of morphology,has been tabled by the editors of Peters' Check-list in the hope that additional clueson the interrelationshipsof the generaand on specificlimits will be 606 1967Oct. ] Reviews 607 forthcomingfrom contemporaryfield and laboratory studiesthat emphasizecom- parative behavior, ecology, and anatomy. One of the new breed of students whoseavowed target is the evolutionaryhistory of the adaptive radiation that has taken placein the Tyrannidaeis W. John Smith, who bega.nhis assaulton the family while a graduatestudent with Dr. Ernst Mayr at Harvard. This publication,dealing exclusivelywith the type genus,is the first report of Smith'son-going field studies. The emphasisis on an analysisof the natureand integrationof the displaybehavior of eachof the 13 speciesof Tyrannus,as newly constitutedby Smith. The Eastern Kingbird, Tyrannustyrannus, was studiedin greatestdetail and servesas a basis for comparisonwith its congeners. Descriptionsof the vocalizationsand non-vocal displaysof each speciesare followed by discussionsof the messagesand functions of these communicative displays.These inventoriesof display behavior,along with the analysesof their adaptivesignificance, are well done and will providea usefulbasis for comparison with othertyrannid genera. Vocal displays were recorded,analyzed spectrographically, and presentedas simplifeddrawings of the originalsound spectrograms (an un- fortunatepractice, resulting in the lossof someof the objectivitygained through the useof modernelectronic equipment). A briefersection considers the comparative ecologyand distributionof kingbirds.No specimenswere collected.A glossary is includedand needed(e.g., chapter9 is entitled "ZoosemioticComparisons"). One of Smith'sbasic premises is that a study of the vocal repertoiresof kingbirds providesa legitimateindex to phylogeneticrelationships within the genusand, on that basis,he recognizesfour groupsof kingbirds.He would place three of these groupsin a subgenusTyrannus: the "tropical" group,consisti.ng of T. melancholicus, T. aIboguIaris,and T. niveigularls;the "western"group, including T. verticalis,T. vociferans,T. crassirostris,and T. couchii;and the "eastern"group, consistingof T. tyrannus,T. dominicensis,T. caudifasciatus,and T. cubensls.The fourth group, madeup of T. forJicatusand T. savana,would constitutethe subgenusMuscivora. The removalof the LoggerheadKingbird (caudiJasciatusof the Greater Antilles) from the monotypicgenus "ToImarchus" and its assignmentto Tyrannushad been recommendedby Zimmer, strictly on morphologicalcharacters, and by severalcon- temporaryworkers. There may be more resistance,however, to Smith's decisionto place the Scissor-tailedFlycatcher, Muscivora forficata, and the Fork-tailedFly- catcher, M. tyrannus, in Tyrannus. He believesthat the morphologicaland be- havioral charactersof Muscivora are but adaptationsof kingbirdsto life in the more open savannas. Other workers have recognizedthe close relationshipof the two groupsand the decisionto emphasizethe similaritiesor the differencesin taxonomy is admittedlyan arbitrary one. I personallyconsider Smith's arrangementto be preferable. Some readerswill be puzzled by the use of the name savana for the Fork-tailed Flycatcher. It would have beenprudent for the author to have mentioned the necessityof reviving the next oldestavailable name for the speciesin order to replacethe Linnaeanname tyrannus which was madeinvalid (homonym)by shifting the speciesto Tyrannus. Taxonomistswill be most reluctant to accept Smith's proposal that the breeding kingbirds of northeasternMexico (couchii) are specificallydistinct from T. melancholicus,the Tropical Kingbird, with which they have been associatedby all workers in this century. The recommendationfor specific status rests exclusively on an allegeddifference in voice, for there was no critical analysisof morphological charactersin the populations involved. In order to acquire a background for interpretingSmith's data, I assembleda seriesof specimensof breedingkingbirds 608 Reviews [ Vol.Auk 84 from eastern Mexico. For loan of specimensunder their care I am grateful to the following individuals: Pierce Brodkorb, John W. Hardy, Richard F. Johnston, George H. Lowery, George M. Sutton, and Dwain W. Warner. The population couchii is separable from the Middle American races of T. melancholicus only by virtue of its more pointed wing and its larger size, as reflected in its longer wing and tail. There are no useful differencesin plumage pattern or coloration. A cline of diminishing size, from couchii in southern Texas to T. melancholicuschloronotus in southern Mexico and Central America, is paralleled by similar north-south dines in a number of Mexican species. A rather pronounced step in this cline can be demonstrated in specimensfrom the central region of the Caribbean lowlands of Mexico (see Table 1). The critical zone of intergradation would appear to be northern and central Veracruz, eastern Puebla, and eastern Hidalgo. There is no morphological evidence to suggest any relationship other than the usual type of intergradation between a larger, partially migratory race in the north with a smaller, resident race immediately to the south. TABLE 1 WING LENGTlt (IN lVtlVi) OF BREEDINGKINGBIRDS IN TIlE CARIBBEANLOWLANDS OF MEXICO Males Females Sample N Mean Range N Mean Range Texas, Tamaulipas 15 123.5 118-127 7 119.6 117-125 Southern San Luis Potosi 9 121.6 115-127 7 118.3 116-120 Southern Veracruz, Puebla, Morelos, Oaxaca 30 114.5 107-123 22 110.7 105-116 Chiapas, Tabasco, Yucatan 7 111.3 107-116 3 108.3 107-109 Just how different is the voice of couchii from that of the wide-ranging T. melancholicus? Smith makes the significant observation that there is considerable geographical variation in the vocal repertoire of T. melancholicusand, further: "it will take a larger tape-recorded sample than I have at present to enable proper descriptionof the vocalizations,and the following account [of T. melancholicus] must be taken as provisional." In view of this geographicalvariation in voice, any significance attached to a difference in the voice of one segment of the species' population shouldbe predicatedon a thorough analysisof variation throughout the range of the species. Equally essential is an exhaustive field study in the critical area of contact, in this case the central eastern lowlands of Mexico, involving the collecting of birds of known
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