78 



Recent Literature. \^^ 



LJan. 



in a thoroughly creditable manner, and has thereby merited the thanks of 

 thousands of bird students to whom her book will trulj' prove a ' boon.' — 

 J. A. A. 



Brewster's 'Birds of the Cape Region of Lower California.' ^ — The 

 Cape Region of Lower California, as here defined, comprises the terminal 

 portion of the peninsula " southward from the northern base of the moun- 

 tains between La Paz on the Gulf shore and the town of Todos Santos on 

 the Pacific Coast," and is a sharply defined faunal and floral area, charac- 

 terized by peculiar climatic conditions which have left their impress upon 

 the animal and plant life. It is a mountainous country, separated from 

 the more nortiiern part of the peninsula by a low desert tract which forms 

 a formidable barrier to the extension of plant and animal life, either from 

 the north southward or from the south northward. It has a rather humid 

 climate, and is situated on the edge of the tropics, the Tropic of Cancer 

 crossing the center of the region. Its area embraces about two degrees of 

 latitude and one of longitude. 



The basis of this excellent monograph consists of a collection of "up- 

 wards of 4,400 birds " made for the author by Mr. M. Abbott Frazar in 

 1887. An ' Introduction ' of twelve pages is devoted largely to an itiner- 

 ary of the trip, which describes in detail the localities where Mr. Frazar 

 collected, and also defines the region and indicates its peculiar physical 

 characteristics. The ' Systematic Notice of the Birds ' occupies pages 

 13-219, and is followed by a bibliography, and a good index. Mr. Brew- 

 ster regrets that there is so little to record respecting the life histories of 

 the species, Mr. Frazar's field notes proving scanty, and other ornitholo- 

 gists who have visited the region seem to have been more intent on 

 gathering and preparing specimens than on recording field observations. 

 " The main portion of my paper," says the author, " treats only of birds 

 which are definitely known to have occurred in the Cape Region, but in 

 dealing with the distribution of such of these as are not confined to this 

 area, I have consulted — and frequently cited, also — all the more impor- 

 tant records that I could find relating to the central and upper parts of the 

 Peninsula as well as to southern California, and in addition I have out- 

 lined, briefly, the general range of each species or subspecies along the 

 Pacific coast, hoping thereby to show more clearly the precise relations in 

 which the different forms stand geographically to the Cape fauna." 



Acknowledgment is made to his assistant, Mr. Walter Deane, for the 

 preparation of the bibliographj-, which includes some seventy titles, and 

 for preparing the synonymy. He has performed the task, says Mr. 

 Brewster, " with infinite care and faithfulness, verifying every citation by 



1 Birds of the Cape Region of Lower California. By William Brewster. 

 Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., Vol. XLI, No. i. pp. 1-241, with Map. September, 

 1902. 



