1891.1 Recent TJterature. QCJ 



Mr. Hargitt's treatment of our Pileated Woodpecker presents a curious 

 and lamentable case. He retnoves it from the genus Cco/>/i/ccus (the 

 propriety of which we leave as merely a question of opinion) and places 

 it under Dryotomus of Swainson (1831), of which he considers Hylatomus. 

 of Baird (185S) as a pure synonym, giving the same species as ike type of 

 each, m.n\e\y, Picus pileattts l^\nn. Although Swainson placed /*. //V^w- 

 ttis under his genus Dryotomus, he expressly gives as its "Typical spe- 

 cies," Picus martins (Fauna Bor.-Am., II, p. 301), thus making his Dry- 

 ototnus^ pure synonym of the genus Picus, as of late restricted, leaving 

 Hylatomus Baird availabfe for Picus pileatus, for those wb.o wish to 

 separate it from Ceophlceus. Furthermore, Picus filcatus appears to 

 have been placed under Dryotomus by only two authors, Swainson and 

 Bonaparte, and by no one since 1838, till Mr. Hargittcame on the scene, 

 while it was almost universally recognized as Hylatomus pileatus from 

 1S5S to 18S6! Swainson simply treated Picus pileatus and P. martius as 

 congeneric species under his genus Dryotomus, expressly naming Picus 

 martius as the type! In reviewing works so indispensible and of such 

 inestimable value to the ornithologist as are the volumes of the British 

 Museum 'Catalogue of Birds,' it is painful to find one's self confronted 

 with misleading statements on points of vital importance in nomencla- 

 ture, of which the above is untbrtunately by no means an isolated case. 

 -J. A. A. 



Merriam's 'Results of a Biological Survey of the San Francisco Moun- 

 tain Region and Desert of the Little Colorado, Arizona.' — In 'Nortli 

 American Fauna, No. 3',"" Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Chief of the Division of 

 Ornithology and Mammalogy, U. S. Department of Agriculture, gives an 

 account of results of a biological survey of the San Francisco Mountain 

 region in Arizona made by him, with a small corps of assistants, during 

 August and September, 1S89. The area surveyed carefully comprised 

 about 5,000 square miles, while 7,000 more were roughly examined, and 

 a biological map prepared of the whole. In addition to Mr. Vernon Bai- 

 ley, Dr. Merriam had with him in the field Prof. F. H. Knovvlton, assist- 

 ant paleontologist, U. S. Geological Survey, and Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, 

 curator of reptiles in the U. S. National Museum. The report consists of 

 (i) General Results, with special reference to the geographical and ver- 

 tical distribution of species. (2) Grand Canon of the Colorado. (3) 

 Annotated List of Mammals with descriptions of new species. (4) An- 

 notated List of Birds. (5) Annotated List of Reptiles and Batrachians. 

 with descriptions of new species. The last is by Dr. Stejneger, the 

 others by Dr. Merriam, who also has an illustrated paper on 'Forest 

 Trees of the San Francisco Mountain Region, Arizona,' and another on 



*North American Fauna, No. 3. Published by authority of the Secretary of Agri- 

 culture. 8vo. pp. viii-|-i36, with a frontispiece, 13 plates, and 5 maps. Published 

 Sept. II, i8go. 



