1916] Dice: Land Vertebrates of Southeastern Washington 329 



Associations may, for ease in comparison, be grouped in either of 

 several different manners. Grinnell and Swarth (1913, pp. 218-220) 

 have considered two kinds of associations, major and minor. Each 

 major association is made up of one or more minor associations. Major 

 associations recognized in the San Jacinto area of California are : 

 chaparrel, forest, riparian, rupestrine, meadow and sand-flat. It is 

 considered that a given major association may occur in several faunal 

 areas and life-zones, but its minor divisions are much more restricted. 

 The associations of southeastern Washington recognized in this paper 

 would belong in general to the -class of major associations according 

 to this classification, for no attempt has been made in most cases to 

 work out the finer divisions of the associations. 



Another method of comparing associations is to group them into 

 formations. A formation is stated to be a group of physiologically 

 similar associations ( Shelf ord, 1913, p. 38). Formations may them- 

 selves be combined into still larger groups. The classification of the 

 formations of the world is still in its preliminary stages. 



Shelf ord (1911, pp. 604, 605) has proposed a classification of 

 formations with Avhich it will be illuminating to compare the associa- 

 tions of southeastern Washington. The conifer forest associations of 

 the Blue Mountains must be referred to his second division, forma- 

 tions of forests with narrow, thick leaves. The bunchgrass associations 

 belong to the third division, formations of savannas and grasslands, 

 and to the subdivision c, cool steppe formations. The associations of 

 the rivers belong to division seven, formations of fresh water. The 

 other associations are harder to place in the system. 



ZOOGEOGRAPHIC POSITION OF SOUTHEASTERN 

 WASHINGTON 



The accompanying table (Table 4) shows the general relations of 

 the vertebrate faunas of southeastern Washington to the faunas of 

 adjacent regions. In this table the occurrences in the adjacent regions 

 are given of those species whose ranges are well known and which have 

 been definitely identified from Walla Walla County or Columbia 

 County. Of the birds only those species occurring in the regions in 

 summer and which are presumably breeding are included. 



The Columbia Basin sagebrush fauna shows in this comparison 

 much greater affinity to the fauna of the Great Basin than to the 



