Vo J- x 1 Recent Literature. 287 



at St. George, Utah. Especially interesting also is the finding of the 

 Gray-crowned Finch {Leucosticte tcphrocotis) breeding in the Sierra 

 Nevada and White Mountains in eastern and southern California, its 

 breeding grounds being not only previously unknown, but the genus 

 even had not before been reported from this region. As Dr. Fisher re- 

 marks : "The knowledge that this bird breeds as stated makes its distri- 

 bution in relation to the other species of the genus a little more clear." 

 Much light was thrown also upon the habitat of Thurber's Junco {Junco 

 hyemalis tkurberi), which was found to breed commonly in most of the 

 desert ranges of southeastern California, as well as in the southern por- 

 tion of the Sierra Nevada. 



Of the California Vulture Dr. Fisher writes : "It was with considerable 

 surprise and pleasure that we found the California Vulture still tolerably 

 common in certain localities west of the Sierra Nevada, in California." 

 At San Emigdio, in Kern County, "Mr. Nelson found it quite common 

 in October, and was told that it became very numerous there in winter." 



The annotations, often quite extended, relate almost exclusively to the 

 distribution of the species, being not at all technical and not to any great 

 extent biographical. 



While the other special papers in the 'Report' hardly call for particular 

 remark in the present connection, it should be noted that Mr. Palmer's 

 detailed descriptive list of the localities visited by the Death Valley 

 Expedition is a most important and convenient adjunct to the Report, 

 rendering it possible, in connection with the excellent map of the region 

 traversed, to locate nearly every locality mentioned, a large number of 

 which are for the first time indicated on any accessible map. 



Dr. Merriam's notes on the distribution of the trees ami shrubs, and the 

 yuccas and cactuses, are also of special interest to zoologists as well as 

 botanists, aside from their more practical and general interest. "Most of 

 the desert shrubs," say Dr. Merriam, "are social plants and are distrib- 

 uted in well-marked zones, the vertical limits of which are fixed by the 

 temperature during the period of growth and reproduction. . . . The 

 principal plant zones conform also to the animal zones, as defined by the 

 limits of distribution of terrestrial mammals, birds, and reptiles." The 

 limits of distribution, however, in the case of plants are much more 

 readily traced than in the case of animals, and thus plants, and particu- 

 larly trees and shrubs, serve admirably in aiding to determine natural 

 areas of distribution. Of special interest in this connection are maps 3 

 ami 4, giving respectively the distribution of Leconte's Thrasher (Har- 

 forkynchus lecontei) and the creosote bush, where at first sight the 

 colored areas seem to be almost identical. "The creosote bush (Larrea 

 tridentata) is the most conspicuous, most widely distributed, and best 

 known bush of the torrid deserts of the southwest, where it covers the 

 gravel soils up to a certain line, which probably marks the southern 

 limit of killing frost" (p. 286). Map 2 illustrates the "Lower Division of 

 the Lower Sonoran Life Zone," which is "the area in which the raising 



