Recently published Ornithological Works. 351 



or subspecies are themselves always more or less intermediate 

 in form in the areas which are intermediate to the central 

 habitats of the uidividual races. 



On the whole this little work will not add to the author's 

 reputation either as an observer in the field or as a recorder 

 of his own and other peoples' observations. 



Grinnell on Californian Birds. 



[A Distributional List of the Birds of California. By Joseph Grinnell. 

 Cooper Ornithological Club, Pacific Coast Avifauna, no. 11, pp. 1-217. 

 Hollywood, Cal., 1915. 8vo.] 



The State of California, on the Pacific Coast of North 

 America, is, after Texas, the largest in the Union, and 

 occupies an area one and three-quarters that of Great 

 Britain. The first list of the birds of the State was drawn 

 up by Dr. James G, Cooper, and published as a contribution 

 to Crouise's ' Natural Wealth of California ' in 1868. 

 Dr. Cooper's name is preserved in that of the Club, by 

 which the present list is published ; moreover, this is the 

 third list prepared by the present author and published by 

 the Club. The first, published in 1902, contained the names 

 of 491 species; the second, in 1912, 530; the present one 

 541. The nomenclature and classification of the A. O. U. 

 Check-list is, with some unimportant exceptions, adhered 

 to throughout, and to each species listed is given an account 

 of its status, so far as it is known, within the State, with 

 some bibliographical indications. A carefully prepared 

 coloured map of the Life-zones, and a smaller one of the 

 faunal districts, completes this carefully-prepared volume, 

 which will doubtless prove invaluable to our ornithological 

 brethren of the Cooper Club. 



Mottram on Sexual Dimorphism among Birds. 



[The Distribution of Secondary Sexual Characters amongst Birds, 

 with relation to their Liability to the Attack of Enemies. By J. 0. 

 Mottram, M.B. (Lond.). Proc. Zool. Soc. Loudon, 1915, pp. 666-678.] 



Mr. Mottram finds that marked sexual dimorphism among 

 birds is met with chiefly in those groups which are most liable 



