242 Recent Literature. LApril 



Correction. — In mentioning the 'Preliminary List of the Birds of 

 Tennessee 'in the January 'Auk,' p. 103, Mr. W. D. Howser was credited 

 with the compilation and editing. We now learn that this labor was 

 performed by Mr. A. F. Ganier, Curator of the Tennessee Ornithological 

 Society. — Witmer Stone. 



RECENT LITERATURE. 



Chapman's ' Distribution of Bird-Life in Colombia.' — The ap- 

 pearance of Dr. Chapman's report on the ' Distribution of Bird-Life in 

 Colombia ' x more than meets our expectations. We realize at once that 

 it is the most important contribution ever made to the subject of which 

 it treats but we further recognize in it the completion of a definite plan, 

 clearly conceived and carefully carried out — an accomplishment that 

 must be as much of a gratification to the author as it is to those who consult 

 the volume. Too often, especially in America, important explorations 

 have been made and extensive collections obtained which through force 

 of circumstances remain unreported, except in so far as a series of ' pre- 

 liminary descriptions ' of new forms may be regarded as a report, which in 

 their brevity, are often as much of a hindrance as they are a help to science. 



Dr. Chapman assembled his collections, published his descriptions of new 

 species with praiseworthy detail and now presents us with a comprehensive 

 report of the entire investigation, with discussions, not only of the relation- 

 ship of the birds but of the varied characters of the country they inhabit — 

 its forests, rainfall and other environmental conditions, and finally his 

 deductions as to the limits of the present day life zones of Colombia, their 

 history and the probable origin of the bird-life of the country. Needless to 

 say this is no small task especially when we read that: " so indefinitely 

 is the physiography of the country diversified that our entire time in 

 Colombia might have been devoted to a single mountain range and still 

 not have given us the information needed to map its zones and faunas with 

 a thoroughness which would begin to express all the facts and factors 

 involved," and the author modestly adds: " we must therefore, leave to 

 future workers the task of filling in the details. . . .with a hope that they 

 will find the zonal and faunal boundaries here proposed at least fundamen- 

 tally correct." This hope we are sure will be more than realized. 



1 The Distribution of Bird-Life in Colombia. A Contribution to a Biological Survey of 

 South America. By Frank M. Chapman. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXXVI, 

 1917. pp. i-x, 1-729; plates I-XLI; t«xt figures, 1-21. New York, 1917. 



