x g ' I Notes and News. 307 



continental zones, (a) Upper Sonoran, and (b) Lower Sonoran ; and 

 each of these in turn may be subdivided into arid and humid divisions" 

 (I. c, p. 27). Nothing is said here or elsewhere, so far as I have been 

 able to discover, about 'subregions,' nor is there any definite allusion to 

 the divisions of the 'Sonoran' previously announced, nor any definite clue 

 given as to what extent that classification was intended to be abrogated 

 or modified by the later paper. In fact, the later paper does not perhaps 

 go sufficiently into details to make this distinctly requisite. At page 29 

 of the 'Address,' however, it is stated that "Lower California is a sub- 

 division of the arid Lower Sonoran Zone"; and on page 30 that Lower 

 California is entitled "to rank as a minor subdivision of the Lower 

 Sonoran Zone." And this is all that I supposed was implied by the 

 classification given in the previous paper (N. Am. Fauna, No. 3, p. 25). 



My purpose in referring to and making use of Dr. Merriam's 'sub- 

 regions' in defining my own areas was two-fold : first (as they had been 

 already mapped and defined), to save trouble and space in writing out 

 their boundaries; second, in order to make a direct comparison between 

 them and my own, which for the most part merely differed in respect to 

 nomenclature. In connection with the statistics given by me respecting 

 the bird fauna of Lower California, I should have given, or at least made 

 reference to, the much fuller statistics previously published by Dr. Merriam 

 respecting the fauna and flora in general ; the omission to do this was 

 purely an oversight (partly due, however, to the necessity for condensa- 

 tion), which I sincerely regret, and I am glad to have Dr. Merriam give 

 them their merited prominence in the present connection. 



As Dr. Merriam has shown in his admirable historical summary of 

 the treatment of Lower California by previous writers (Pies. Add., pp. 

 16, 17), many authors who have referred to it have recognized its low 

 ratio of peculiar forms and its close relationship to the arid interior dis- 

 trict designated by Dr. Merriam as 'Arid Lower Sonoran.' — J. A. Allen.] 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Mr. Jenness Richardson, an Associate Member of the A. O. U., died 

 atBryn Mawr Park, Yonkers, N. Y., June 24, 1893, at t,le a » e °f 36 years 

 and 19 days, after a long and painful illness. Although Mr. Richardson 

 has published little, he was an excellent field naturalist and collector, but 

 was especially distinguished as one of the leading taxidermists of the 

 modern school. He was born at Rutland, Vt., in 1S57, where he spent his 

 younger days, early developing a strong taste for natural history pur- 

 suits, and unusual skill as a taxidermist. He was for some years an 

 assistant of Mr. W. T. Hornaday at the National Museum in Washington. 

 In 18S6 he left Washington for New York, and took the position of Chief 



