VOl i909" VI ] Recent Literature. 91 



not only annotated faunal lists of the mammals, birds, reptiles, batrachians, 

 and fishes, and trees and shrubs of the region, but a very full description 

 of the physical geography and climatology of the Mackenzie Basin, a 

 detailed account of the routes traversed by Mr. Preble and his assistants 

 (his brother Alfred E. Preble, in 1901 and 1903, and Merritt Cary in 1903), 

 and a summary of the previous explorations and collections made in the 

 region. The work has been so well done that Mr. Preble's report will 

 remain for all time a standard source of information on the biology and 

 early explorations of this immense and hitherto much neglected area. In 

 1903-04, Mr. Preble passed the winter at Fort Simpson, and thus had an 

 opportunity to become familiar with winter conditions at this remote 

 subarctic post. 



Each of the different physical areas, from the Athabaska Valley to the 

 Barren Grounds, is separately treated in detail. The life zones of the 

 Athabaska-Mackenzie region — the Arctic, Hudsonian, and Canadian — 

 are illustrated by a colored map (plate ii), based on very thorough knowl- 

 edge of the subject, Mr. Preble's previous explorations in the Hudson Bay 

 region • being of special service in mapping the country bordering Hudson 

 Bay. 



The ornithological portion of the report (pp. 251-500) forms an elabo- 

 rately annotated list of the (approximately) 293 species and subspecies 

 " authoritatively recorded from the region treated in the present report. 

 In the account of each species," says the author, "our own observations 

 are usually given first, in chronological order, the published records fol- 

 lowing. Of the published references relating to the various species only 

 those have been utilized which best represent the distribution, dates of 

 migration, breeding, and other interesting features of their life history, 

 preference usually being given to the notes earliest published." Authori- 

 ties are given in footnotes, in place of the immensely inconvenient method 

 of giving references to titles scheduled at the end of the work, now so 

 much in vogue; notes not accompanied by references "are derived from 

 manuscript records or verbal communications," and are duly accredited 

 in the text. The classification and nomenclature is that of the A. O. U. 

 Check-List, including the many changes of the Fourteenth Supplement. 

 The A. O. U. Code is strictly followed in respect to the authority for 

 specific and subspecific names, which is to be enclosed in parenthesis 

 only when the species or subspecies is used in combination with a generic 

 name different from the one employed by the original describer. This was 

 the original intent of the use of the parenthesis for authorities, but in 

 recent years the names of authorities have by many writers been im- 

 properly placed in parentheses to denote not only this, but any change in 

 the status of the species or subspecies from the original designation. 



An annotated bibliography of 23 pages — from Hearne, 1791, to Seton, 



i A Biological Investigation of the Hudson Bay Region, North Amer. Fauna No. 

 22, 1902. 



