1 04 Recent Literature. \j,ln. 



This is important testimony, and so far as it goes, seems to favor the 

 presumption that young birds must learn their songs through association 

 witli older members of their own species. Yet before this can be 

 assumed as satisfactorily proven, and that the characteristic songs of 

 birds are not innate, further experiments of like nature, and with other 

 species, are desirable. It is a field of great interest and well worthy of 

 careful and persistent investigation. — J. A. A. 



Barlow's List of the Land Birds of Placerville, California.^ — The area 

 to which the present paper relates appears to be a narrow belt of country 

 along the old Lake Tahoe stage road, from Placerville to Tallac, 62 miles 

 from Placerville and on the eastern slope of the Sierra. Placerville is 

 situated at an altitude of 1800 feet, the route thence rising for the next 

 50 miles to Summit, with an altitude of 7000 feet, and thence 12 miles 

 down the eastern slope to Tallac at an altitude of 6200 feet. The first 

 eight pages of this very interesting and important paper contain a general 

 description of the country through which the route passes, with numerous 

 half-tone illustrations from photographs, an account of the ' life zones ' 

 of the region, and of the recent explorations on which the paper is based, 

 followed by an extensively annotated list of the land birds, numbering 

 about 130 species. 



Placerville is situated at " the lower limit of the Transition zone, 

 which extends up to about 5000 feet "; this is followed by the Canadian 

 zone, extending from 5000 feet up to 7500, with the Hudsonian above, 

 extending "from about 8000 feet upward on the slopes of the higher 

 peaks." Mention is made of the characteristic birds and trees of these 

 several zones. 



The list is based on observations made by ^•arious observers during the 

 breeding season for the last nine years, notably upon those of Mr. W. W. 

 Price, who " made his first investigations in the summer of 1893 and has 

 since devoted three months of each year to the exploration of the country 

 contiguous to the stage road. His twenty-seven months' experience has 

 made him familiar with e\en the more remote portions of the region so 

 that the addition of his notes [included in brackets and designated by the 

 initials ' VV. W. P.'] to the present list insures its reasonable com- 

 pleteness.'" Mr. Barlow went over the entire route in 1901, and had 

 previously spent short periods, at various points, in company with other 

 observers, to vvhom he acknowledges valued assistance. These include 

 Messrs. W. H. Osgood, R. H. Beck, L. E. Taylor, H. W. Carriger, John 

 M. Welch, Wm. L. Anderson, and others. The list thus naturallv deals 



1 A List of the Land Birds of Placerville- Lake Tahoe Stage Road. Central 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains, Cal. By Chester Barlow. With Supplementary 

 Notes by W. W. Price. The Condor, Vol. Til, No. 6, pp. 151-184, Nov. 16, 

 1901. 



