distribution. Yet t ho author discusses mam such questions with an assur- 

 ance that only a much greater knowledge of the facts in the case than is at 

 present available would warrant. 



It must be said, however, that the author has overlooked but little of 

 the available information bearing upon Ins subject, and that he lias used 

 it effectively in so far as it favors his side of the argument No one author. 



can in these > : to all the varied facts and problems of 



such a broad subject the equipment of an expert, and ho is thus prone to 

 to the literature ho cites us full face value; especially when it seems 

 favorable to his hypotheses S ghth . erentiated forms, considered not 

 by of nomonolatural recognition by the majority of authorities, are 

 usually cited a< full species, and groups genera are com- 



monly cited as full genera although in various instances they are not cur- 

 rently - .. even subgeneric value In the case of the 

 muskox and his ancestry, he has accepted the baseless conclusions of a 

 riter on the subject at the author's own estimate, and thus intro- 

 duced into lu> - that it will now be difficult to eradicate 

 from semi-popular sources of information In some oasos, however, he has 

 looked information having an important bearing on poin s cons dered, 

 here in his discussion of the evidences in favor of a mid-Atlantic land 

 bridge between the West Indies and At- - fig i r during the 

 earfj - the soals of the genus V - as evidem 

 such a connection, which genus ho says its ly in the Mediterranean 

 and Antilloar. .-okinj; the fact that a species [M 



Mats* - the other two has I 



described from Laysan Island in the mid-Pacific! This, it is true, is a 

 comparati - \ but serves all the more to show the 



sent knowledge of the distribution of important typos of 

 mammalian 1 

 In hi- - iss .'loan life the rioo-rats j - are said to 



have a 'S Idis ntinuous range in North and South America,"' 



American mammals, it is 

 true from southern United States to Terra del 



tinuous or unbroken distribution. This 

 is a small error in com] rith the misstatement that one sp< 



; own from only a few specimens, collected some thirty 



- formerly "so abundant in Jamaica, and did such damage to 



is, that the mong - -nail carnh - mported from India for 



us destruction," the fact being that the destructive rats of Jamaica and 



neighbor introduced Old World species of iho genus 



(= ■ 



In his liscuss the fauna and Florida, Lower California 



and Labrador, the authoi - - - sing disregard of the controlling 

 influence of temperature and other climatic conditions upon the range of 



s 



