306 General Notes. [ Iu"y 



peninsula, and stated : "The peninsula of Lower California is a subdivi- 

 sion of the arid Lower Sonoran Zone. Not a single genus of land mam- 

 mal or bird is restricted to it, and but two peculiar species of mammals 

 have been described. The peculiar birds are more numerous, but with 

 few exceptions are only subspecifically separable from those of neighbor- 

 ing parts of the United States and Mexico .... Among reptiles, about 

 25 peculiar species of snakes and lizards are believed to be restricted to the 

 peninsula, but no peculiar genus is known. Three of the genera are trop- 

 ical, and nine are arid Lower Sonoran. In addition to the peculiar species 

 and subspecies of the peninsula, many characteristic arid Lower Sonoran 

 forms of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and plants abound. Among 

 the latter may be mentioned the highly distinctive Sonoran desert brush, 

 Larrca mexicana and Krameria parvifolia .... It is evident, however, 

 that the peculiar fauna of the peninsula of Lower California entitles it to 

 rank as a minor subdivision of the Lower Sonoran Zone. It is in effect an 

 insular fauna of recent origin, bearing the same relation to that of the 

 mainland as do several of the adjacent islands." (Presidential Address on 

 the Geographic Distribution of Life in North America, Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 Washington. Vol. VII, April 1892, pp. 29-30). 



The case is simply this : Dr. Allen has quoted views expressed by me 

 several years ago, before I had made a special study of the faunal posi- 

 tion of Lower California, instead of my later views on the same subject, 

 Parallel instances of the quotation of earlier instead of later conclusions 

 occur in other places. — C. Hart Merriam, Washington, D . C. 



[I trust it is needless for me to say that the misrepresentation implied 

 above by Dr. Merriam was entirely unintentional and unconscious on 

 my part. Accompanying the quotation given by Dr. Merriam is a foot- 

 note (not mentioned by him), as follows: "N. Am. Fauna, No. 3, 1890, 

 p. 2^, and map 5." This refers to a paragraph which begins as follows: 

 "The Sonoran Province. . . . comes into the United States from the 

 south and is divisible into six subregions, namely: (1) an Arid or Son- 

 oran subregion proper, occupying the tableland of Mexico and reaching 

 north into western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and southern Cali- 

 fornia; (2) a Californian subregion, occupying the greater part of the 

 State of that name ; (3) a Lower Californian subregion ; (4) a Great 

 Basin subregion . . ."; and so on. Now as to "'subregion' — whatever 

 that may mean"; — on this apparently there can be no better authority 

 than Dr. Merriam himself. I used it, in the passage in question, as a 

 borrowed term, and to indicate this placed it between 'single quotes.' 

 'Subregion', as here used, is employed of course in a very different sense 

 from 'subregion' as used by me in a technical sense. And Dr. Merriam, 

 as I understand it, merely employed it in a <7«rt^/'-technical sense to 

 designate provisionally subdivisions of a minor grade. 



In his later paper ('Presidential Address') Dr. Merriam says: "The 

 Sonoran Region may be divided by temperature into two principal trans- 



