440 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVII. No. 1218 



It can readily be seen that this scheme would 

 synchronize the days of the week, the month, 

 and the year, throughout. 



The international commission above referred 

 to seems to have faded out with the advent of 

 the war. 



T. G. Dabney 



Clabksdale, Miss., 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



A Chech List of North American Amphibians 

 and Reptiles. By Leonhakd Stejneger 

 and Thomas Barbour. Camibridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, Harvard University Press. 1917. 

 125 pages. 



The check list of ITorth American reptiles 

 and amphibians which has recently been pub- 

 lished will undoubtedly initiate a new period 

 in the herpetology of the continent, for it ap- 

 pears opportim.ely and has been carefully pre- 

 pared by the two foremost students of the sub- 

 ject. 



There has long existed an urgent need for 

 such a work. The last check list (Garman, 

 1884) was superseded by Cope's monographs 

 on " The Batrachia of North America " (1889) 

 and " The Crocodilians, Lizards and Snakes 

 of North America" (1900) which have re- 

 mained the most recent attempts toward com- 

 plete lists. Cope's books contain many inac- 

 curacies, and since their appearance the field 

 work of a number of museums and the studies 

 of several investigators have materially in- 

 creased our knowledge of the subjecit. The re- 

 sults of recent studies have appeared in excel- 

 lent monographs, such as Dickerson's " The 

 Frog Book," Van Denhurgh's " The Reptiles 

 of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin," and 

 Stejneger's " The Poisonous Snakes of North 

 America," and in numerous, small, widely 

 scattered papers, many of which are only to be 

 found in the large libraries. The result of the 

 unorganized condition of the subject was that 

 only the herpetologist knew what forms were 

 to be recognized, and, owing to the chaotic 

 condition of the nomenclature, only the spe- 

 cialists who had access to the large and older 

 collections were in position to decide upon 

 the names that should be used. 



The check list evidently is not a mere list of 

 described forms, but represents an attempt at 

 a rather thorough reorganization of the syste- 

 matic herpetology of the area which it covers. 

 As stated in the introduction, it " has been 

 prepared generally ujMjn the lines of the Amer- 

 ican Ornithologists Union Check List of 

 Birds, and, following that example, it has in- 

 cluded the species and subspecies which the au- 

 thors deem valid and of certain occurrence in 

 North America, north of the Rio Grande, and 

 in Lower California, Mexico." Certainly a 

 painstaking attempt has been made to rectify 

 the nomenclature, and just as certainly no two 

 investigators were better qualified for the task 

 than Dr. Stejneger and Dr. Barbour. Their 

 ability, experience and knowledge of the sub- 

 ject, evidenced in their contributions to the 

 field of systematic herpetology, and the fact 

 that they are curators of the two largest and 

 oldest collections of amphibians and reptiles 

 in America are generally known, and their 

 names on the title page will at the same time 

 give herpetologists confidence in the work and 

 give the book an authority that it would not 

 have otherwise. This is very fortunate not 

 only because the check list was needed, but 

 also because it was time that an authoritative 

 work appeared which could by emendations be 

 perpetuated as has been the check list of the 

 American Ornithologists Union. 



The arrangement of the subject-matter is 

 excellent. It may be described as follows : The 

 genera and higher groups are in systematic 

 sequence; the species are in alphabetic order 

 and only those believed to be valid are in- 

 cluded; the names are followed by citations of 

 their original appearance except in the case 

 of family names, which are formed automat- 

 ically; the reference to the original descrip- 

 tion is followed in the case of genera by the 

 type species, in the case of species by a refer- 

 ence to the first appearance of the name in the 

 combination adopted; under each species a 

 reference is then given to Cope's " North 

 American Batrachia " or " The Crocodilians, 

 Lizards and Snakes of North America " ; and 

 finally the type locality and the range of each 

 species or subspecies is given. 



