■284 Recefit Literature. [ q"J^ 



bush's observations afford most conclusive proof of the protective in- 

 fluence of birds against orchard pests, and we trust the facts he here pre- 

 sents may be made Avidelv known. — J. A. A. 



Merriam on the Geographical Distribution of Animals and Plants in 

 North America. — ^This paper' of 12 pages is " a i-eview of the work under- 

 taken and of the results accomplished bj the Division of Ornithology and 

 Mammalogy." Reference is made to the economic value of a knowledge 

 of the geographic distribution of species; the results of an experimental 

 survey of the San Francisco Mountain region in Arizona are recounted, 

 and of the subsequent biological survey of South-Central Idaho, the Death 

 Vallev region, Wyoming, Montana, the tablelands of Mexico, and else- 

 where. The life zones of North America are recapitulated and illustrated 

 with a map, and the "fundamental principles of animal and plant distri- 

 bution " are succinctly stated, followed by a recapitulation of the work thus 

 far accomplished respecting the general subject of geographic distribution. 

 The paper is in the main a popular resume of the author's previous re- 

 ports and papers on the same subject, already noticed at length in 

 previous numbers of this journal. — J. A. A. 



Suchetet on Hybridity in Birds.- — • Part 5, closing Mr. Suchetet's volume 

 on hvbriditv among birds in a .state of nature, is devoted to additions and 

 corrections to the preceding parts, published respectively in 1S90, 1S91, 

 1892, and 1S93. The present volume is largely made up of additional 

 cases of alleged hybridity, either recently reported, or from earlier reports 

 recently discovered by the author. As we have said in an earlier notice 

 of this work (Auk, IX, 1892, pp. 382, 3S3), Mr. Suchetet has done good 

 service by industriously bringing together in systematic order the sub- 

 stance of the extended and much scattered literature relating to this 

 interesting subject, rather, however, as an amateur than as a trained in- 

 vestigator well equipped for his task. It is, however, a work of immense 

 research, and will prove a valuable compendium of the subject. The 

 work unfortunately is apparently without an index, or even a table of 

 <;ontents. He proposes to devote his second volume on hybridity to the 

 classes of insects and fishes. — J. A. A. 



' The Geographic Distribution of Animals and Plants in North America, 

 "by C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture. Reprinted from the Year-book of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture for 1894, pp. 203-214. Washington, 1S95. 



- Les Oiseaux Hybrides | rencontres a I'fetat sauvage | Par | Andr^ Suchetet 

 I — I Cinquieme Partie | Additions and Corrections | — | Lille | Imprimerie 

 typographique et lithographique le Bigot Freres | 68, rue Nationale, et 25, 

 Nicolas-Leblanc. | — | 1895. ^^'o, pp. 473-873. 



