96 abstracts: paleontology 



ture of the soil and the position of the water table, (2) the appearance 

 of soluble salts at the surface and the distribution of these salts in the 

 soil, and (3) the distribution of plants of certain species that feed on 

 ground water. On the map are shown the areas of discharge (aggre- 

 gating 130,000 acres), and also the depths to the water table predicted 

 on the basis of these areas. 



Alkali Spring Valley illustrates the other type of desert basin in 

 which there is no ground-water discharge, the facihties for under- 

 ground leakage apparently being great enough to dispose of all the 

 water that is absorbed. 



Big Smoky Valley contains three distinct types of ground water, 

 which are genetically related to the geologic formations from which 

 they are derived. The processes of concentration were different in 

 the lacustrine epoch than they are at the present time, and they differ 

 in the clay cores below the playas from those in the surrounding zones 

 of active discharge. 0. E. M. 



PALEONTOLOGY. — Orhitoid foraminifera of the genus OrtJwphrag- 

 mina jrom Georgia and Florida. Papers by C. Wythe Cooke 

 and J. A. Cushman. U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 

 108-G. Pp. 16, with 5 plates. 1917. 

 The first paper, by C. W. Cooke, describes several localities on , 

 Chipola River, Florida, Flint River, Georgia, and Suwannee River, 

 Florida, at which species of Orthophragmina havfe been found in the 

 Ocala limestone and enumerates the species of other organisms that 

 are associated with them. The occurrence in the Ocala limestone of 

 the genus Orthophragmina, which elsewhere appears to be restricted 

 to the Eocene, is corroborative evidence of the Eocene age of that 

 formation. 



The second paper, by J. A. Cushman, describes and figures 6 new 

 species and one new variety of Orthophragmina^. C. W. C. 



ORNITHOLOGY. — Second annual list of proposed changes in the 



A.O.U. check-list of North American birds. Harry C. Ober- 



HOLSER. The Auk 34: 198-205, April, 1917. 



This is a resume of recent ornithological activities not already treated 



in the American Ornithologists' Union Check-List of 1910, its supple- 



,ment, and the First Annual List of Changes in the same. It consists 



of additions, subtractions, rejections, and the changes in generic, 



specific, and subspecific names made for zoological reasons, purely 



nomenclatural questions being excluded. In the present list there 



