Mat 28, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



863 



formidable than its predecessor, and main- 

 tains the standard of excellence, the expression 

 of authority, and the high typographical pre- 

 cision which has always distinguished this 

 annual contribution to zoological literature. 

 There are thirty-four separate articles — cov- 

 ering 647 pages, with thirty -three plates, one 

 hundred and fifty-three text figures, which 

 describe and illustrate two families, fifteen 

 genera and subgenera, and two hundred and 

 eleven species and subspecies " first described 

 or renamed in this volume." 



The initial impression made by an examina- 

 tion of the Bulletin is that of a voluminous 

 contribution to systematology, in harmony 

 with the first impulses that originated the 

 work. Generalized articles are this year al- 

 most completely absent, and the rigorous, 

 more technical requirements of science are 

 only in a few places forgotten, as in some 

 animated verbal excursions by Professor 

 Wheeler, and the admirable historical review 

 of the " North Atlantic Eight Whale and its 

 Near Allies," by Dr. Allen. 



Mammalogy furnishes nine articles, ornith- 

 ology two, entomology fourteen, vertebrate 

 paleontology seven, invertebrate paleontology 

 one, botany one. A serial notice of the 

 articles as they succeed each other, with the 

 most moderate epitomization of their con- 

 tents, or, a reference to them by titles solely, 

 will acquaint all interested with their nature 

 and bearings. 



In article I. Dr. J. A. Allen offers a " List 

 of the Genera and Subgenera of North Ameri- 

 can Birds " according to article 30 of the 

 International Code of Zoological Nomen- 

 clature. The subject is one identified with 

 the author's name whose work in codification 

 is historic. The work is confessedly intri- 

 cate, and an inspection of the paper shows a 

 master's hand. Dr. Allen remarks : 



Our present fabric of nomenelatural rules has 

 been of slow growth. Without going into detail, 

 it may be noted that prior to 1842 there was no 

 official code of nomenclature; each author was his 

 own arbiter, not only as to the sources from which 

 names might be taken and to whom they should 

 be accredited, but in respect to the sense in which 

 they should be employed. 



There seems to be an argumentative inten- 

 tion in the paper, and it might not incon- 

 siderately be classed as a polemic on the topic 

 of "Elimination Versus the First Species 

 Rule." A short but very interesting paper 

 by Professor Whitfield on " Carboniferous 

 Fossils and Semifossils from the Arctic" 

 follows. The most important conclusions are 

 the eminent expression of an American Coal 

 Measure fauna in the north, and the determi- 

 nation of a new inarticulate brachiopod, 

 Arctitreta. Professor T. D. A. Cockerell con- 

 tributes two articles on the insect fossil fauna 

 and fossil fiora of Florissant, Colorado. A 

 copy of the rare Pennant's " Indian Zoology " 

 has recently been exhumed in the library of 

 the American Museum, and furnishes a topic 

 for Dr. Allen in article V. He remarks of 

 it, that: 



Like the copy in the British Museum, described 

 by Newton, it lacks the original wrapper, and has 

 no title page, and in all probability never had any, 

 it being the first fasciculus of a work of which no 

 more was published. 



The plates are uncolored. Articles VI., VH., 

 VIII., IX. and X. embrace characteristically 

 elaborated descriptions of the ants of Porto 

 Eico, the Virgin Islands (Culebra Vieques), 

 of Jamaica, of Moorea, Society Islands, and 

 of the Azores, the latter based on very in- 

 sufficient and vestigial material. 



Eoy C. Andrews, a new author on the pages 

 of the Bulletin, gives some new measurements 

 of the North Atlantic right whale secured 

 from the stranded Amagansett, L. I., speci- 

 men, which " exceeded in size the largest 

 hitherto recorded." " A Four-homed Pely- 

 cosaurian from the Permian of Texas " is 

 described in article XL by Dr. Matthew, 

 which is significantly called Tetraceratops, a 

 new genus, whose " most noticeable feature 

 is the presence of two pairs of prominent 

 bony bosses or ' horns,' one rising from the 

 premaxillaries, the other from the prefrontals." 



This paper is succeeded by an important 

 diagnosis of a new family of armored 

 dinosaurs — ^the Ankylosauridse — by Barnum 

 Brown, the striking features of which are the 

 "sculptured, plated skuU; large flat or low- 

 ridged body plates, some of which are united 



